Complete Set of The Yellow Book: An Illustrated Quarterly

Aubrey Beardsley, art ed. (vols. I-IV); Henry Harland, ed. THE YELLOW BOOK: AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY. 13 vols. (complete). London: Elkin Matthews and John Lane (vol. I-II); John Lane (vol. III-XIII), April 1894-April 1897. 8vo. Hardcovers. Original pictorial yellow cloth-covered boards stamped in black; the first four volumes with cover, spine, and title page designs by Beardsley; the fifth volume with back cover and spine design only by Beardsley (same as on the fourth and used by mistake). Eight of the volumes bound with advertisements at the back. Lasner 65.

8 1/4 x 6 3/4 in. each

Private Collection, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

The Yellow Book was founded by Aubrey Beardsley and novelist Henry Harland as an avant-garde literary and artistic periodical. Intended to be more provocative in nature, the color yellow was chosen to imitate the color of immoral French novels. Although the contents were in reality mostly mild in nature, scandal fell upon the publication following Oscar Wilde's arrest in 1895. An association had formed between Wilde and Beardsley after the artist created illustrations for Salomé, and when the public was mistakenly led to believe that Wilde had a copy of The Yellow Book with him when he was arrested, Beardsley's connection to the magazine was cut abruptly short. This is a fascinating quarterly even aside from its dramatic history, and contributions came from a variety of important artists and writers such as Beardsley, John Singer Sargent, Walter Crane, Henry James, H. G. Wells, Kenneth Grahame, Ella D'Arcy, Constantin Guys, and many others.

This set likely contains many first editions, however, as Lasner explains, "later impressions and facsimiles are difficult to identify...so many sets have been 'made up' and the details are so perplexing that rational codification may well prove impossible" (Lasner p. 44).

Boards with typical age wear including rubbing and scuffing, light wear to extremities, occasional small stains, and spines unevenly darkened and occasionally slightly cocked; one volume with soiling to covers; bookplates on front paste-downs and some with blind stamp of London retailer W. H. Smith & Son; interiors with mostly very light toning and general light wear from use, as well as occasional foxing, minor gutter cracking, light grime, and offsetting; nearly all tissue guards present but a few detached. An about very good set with some leaves partially unopened.