Rimbaud, Arthur — Poésies Complètes

Douai, France [The Hague, Holland] Paul Demeny-fils [A.A.M. Stols] First Edition [Clandestine Edition] pp. 123, [2]. Slim octavo. Quarter navy-blue cloth over plain boards, title stamped in gilt to the spine and front board. Black-and-white protrait frontispiece of Rimbaud. Trifle wear along the edges, a few light spots to the margins of the front board, endpapers lightly-toned, text-block remains without blemish; very good. ¶ A unique clandestine edition edition of Rimbaud's poetry published during the German occupation of the Netherlands. Secretly produced by Dutch publisher A.A.M. Stols in The Hague in 1945 in an effort to circumvent the strict censorship of the Nazi Kultuurkamer and to evade wartime paper rationing. The imprint was deliberately falsified. The title page attributes the publication to "Paul Demeny-fils" in "Douai" and is backdated to "1938" to give the appearance of pre-war stock. See Citation No. 700 in Dirk de Jong's definitive bibliography of Dutch wartime clandestine printing. Reference: De Jong, D. (1958). Het vrije boek in onvrije tijd: Bibliografie van illegale en clandestiene bellettrie. A. W. Sijthoff.