Lilith

A dramatic poem as much as a philosophical dialogue, Lilith offers an irreverent version of the Creation and the birth of desire. Gourmont drew his subject from the traditions collected by Jean-Albert Fabricius in his Codex pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, where Lilith appears as Adam’s first wife, before Eve.

First published in the double issue 8-9 of the Essais d’Art libre, the text then appeared in book form under an emerald-green cover bearing its title in Hebrew characters. The “hell green” Japanese paper of the deluxe copies extends the provocative character of this Symbolist Genesis even to the choice of paper.

A precious copy belonging to Octave Mirbeau, directly connected to the reception of the work. It was Mirbeau himself who asked Gourmont to reserve him a copy, choosing the color of the paper. He subsequently devoted to Lilith, under the pseudonym Jean Maure, an article published in Le Journal of November 20, 1892.

His support for Gourmont had already been strikingly demonstrated the previous year: dismissed from the Bibliothèque nationale after the publication of Le Joujou patriotisme, in which he denounced revanchist nationalism, Gourmont found in Mirbeau a resolute defender. In “Les Beautés du patriotisme,” published by Le Figaro on May 18, 1891, Mirbeau took his side against the campaign waged against him, before helping him secure collaborations with the press.

The volume is bound identically to the copy of Le Fantôme inscribed by Gourmont to Mirbeau, described under no. 346 of the first sale of the latter’s library (I, 1919, no. 346).

From the library of Jean-Claude Delauney (Binoche, November 2018, no. 130).