The Romances of Blanche La Mare by Davis, R.H.[Baccus, Reginald]

Paris [1936]: Np. First Edition. Octavo. 178p. six very graphic sexual scenes by the erotic artist, Jack Craig. Most copies that have survived have only four of the six images. This work purports to be published in Paris but it is likely that it was printed underground in New York. Even though copies were found in Paris by GI's at the end of World War II, Harry Sidney Nichols was an an antiquarian bookseller who printed high-end erotica for the elite of London. He had formed the Erotika Biblion Society in London but under threat of arrest fled to Paris but when threatened with extradition, he immigrated to New York. He was committed to Bellevue Mental Hospital in 1939 where he died soon after. Even if the work had been published in Paris in 1936 it would have faced very serious censorship as is seen in Jack Kahane's fear of publishing Miller's Tropics until Anais Nin agreed to underwrite printing and legal defense. The story originally was published underground at the beginning of the 20th Century. The story is of a girl who becomes involved in the theatrical and bohemian world of London in the 1890's. There are no copies reported in OCLC and one copy in the Kinsey Library. Brown cloth, black lettering on spine, wear along outer joints but a good copy throughout.