Aphrodite.: A Novel of Ancient Manners. Translated into English by Sydney Reynolds.

Paris: Librairie L. Borel,, 1900. A gem of American art bookbinding First edition in English of Louÿs's first novel, in a superb binding by the leading American binder Curtis Walters, known for his intricate mosaic designs. The covers are decorated with a border of green onlaid palmettes in the Etruscan style, a design made famous by Edward of Halifax in England from the 1780s. Aphrodite launched Louÿs's career: it was the best-selling work by any living French author of the time, thanks in no small part to the scandal caused by its libertine themes. Originally conceived as a three-act drama, the novel was serialized in Le Mercure de France between August 1895 and January 1896. The first edition of the book was published on 28 March 1896 and sold out within ten days. "Stripped of its digressions and dancing girls, the narrative tells of a young sculptor, Démétrios, who becomes the lover of Bérénice, Queen of Egypt. The Queen commissions a monumental statue of naked Aphrodite, for which she will be the model, to stand in a new temple, built in gardens near the sea. The marble sculpture stands on a plinth of pink stone and wears a seven-string necklace whose largest pearl hangs between her breasts, 'comme un croissant de lune entre deux nuages ronds'" (Read). Curtis Walters began bookbinding around 1900, initially trained by Henry Stikeman and William Matthews, the best art binders in New York. He soon developed a new method for mosaic bindings, which allowed him to produce complex designs with a small number of tools. The "simplicity of Walters' methods... belies his perseverance and devotion to his art. Only infinite patience and consummate skill could have produced Walters' bindings" (Thompson, p. 108). This edition also comprised 15 copies on Chinese paper and 30 copies on japon. Small octavo (187 x 91 mm). Mid 20th-century orange morocco by Curtis Walters, spine with raised bands, compartments lettered and decorated in gilt with lily pad tools, gilt fillet frames to covers enclosing elaborate Etruscan-style design of gilt and green onlaid palmettes, board edges and turn-ins ruled in gilt, purple endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Frontispiece and numerous in-text illustrations by Calbet, printed in blue, black, and orange. Gilt bright, spine darkened, extremities lightly rubbed, touch of wear at corners, superficial splits to inner hinges but firm, margins of contents lightly browned, occasional minor mark, otherwise clean. A very good copy, presenting handsomely in the binding. Peter Read, "Pierre Louÿs, Rodin, and Aphrodite: Sculpture in Fiction and on the Stage, 1895-1914", French Studies: A Quarterly Review, vol. 61, no. 1, 2007; Lawrence Sidney Thompson, Hand Bookbinding in the United States Since the Civil War, 1954.