Les Fleurs Du Mal (English and French Edition) [Translator Signed Postcard - Association Copy]

New York: David R Godine Publisher, 1982. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover with Dust Jacket. Fine/Very Good.

Bilingual edition of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal, translated by poet Richard Howard and illustrated by Michael Mazur. Includes a typed postcard signed by Howard to Horizon Press publisher Ben Raeburn, along with two laid-in offprints: a disbound review from Yale Review, Winter 1983 (pp. 263-272) and Howard's article Translating Baudelaire: A Preface and a Poem (pp. 90-91) from an unidentified literary journal.

Transcription (postcard excerpt)
'October 22, Ben dear, ... I'm enthralled that you have found the nourishment you have in the Baudelaire. He sometimes seems, for all the sumptuousness of the art, rather defeating fare-not like Rilke or Stevens or Yeats-but it was a great adventure, and your letter makes me know it was all worth while. We should get together-are you never free for lunch? ... call me any morning except Monday (when I teach at Columbia)... Thanks for your inspiriting and confirming words-one lives in hope of such readers as you, dear Ben, and one has not, indeed, lived in vain. Onward and inward, love - Richard Howard, 23 Waverly Pl., NYC 10003.'

Physical Description
Octavo (9.25 inches tall). xxxii [3] 365 [1] pp. Original dark blue cloth with gilt spine titles. Dust jacket with price $22.50 intact. Illustrated with nine original monotypes by Michael Mazur.

Near Fine: minimal shelf wear; binding tight; text clean. Jacket bright with only light corner wear. Laid-in materials well preserved. Howard's translation, still regarded as one of the finest English renderings of Baudelaire, mirrors the musicality and irony of the original Les Fleurs du Mal. The accompanying correspondence provides a vivid link between translator and publisher, illuminating the mid-century New York literary milieu. Mazur's monotypes add a haunting visual resonance to Baudelaire's vision of beauty and decay.

Provenance
From the estate of Horizon Books publisher Ben Raeburn (1914-1997) that passed to his longtime partner Patricia ("Pat") Percey following the death of his wife Pearl Raeburn.

Raeburn, founder of Horizon Press in New York, was a central figure in mid-century American publishing, issuing important works by Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Many volumes from his library bear inscriptions or association value reflecting his close editorial relationships and lifelong influence within New York's independent literary world.

Subjects: Charles Baudelaire, Richard Howard, Horizon Press, Ben Raeburn, French Symbolism, Modern Poetry, Translator Association Copy, Poetry, Literary Translation, Fine Press, Illustrated Books.