Kiki’s Memoirs -
Kiki [Alice Prin], Ernest Hemingway (editor), Samuel Putnam (translator)
1930 - Edward W. Titus at the sign of the Black Manikin Press, Paris - First Edition in English, one of 1000 copies
A superb and apparently unopened copy of the memoirs of Kiki of Montparnasse – buxom, sensuous, strikingly made-up, uninhibited artist’s model and Parisian good-time girl in the 1920’s who was, Hemingway wrote in his introduction, ‘about as close as people get nowadays to being a Queen but that, of course, is very different from being a lady’.
Featuring an Introduction by Ernest Hemingway, and wonderfully illustrated throughout with full page reproductions of 20 paintings by Kiki and with numerous portraits of her by Tsuguharu Foujita, Kisling, Per Krogh, Hermione David and others, together with several by photographer Man Ray, whose lover she was for eight stormy years. Translated from the French by Samuel Putnam and presented here in the original glassine wrapper, the intact red wraparound band, and the publisher's original slipcase. Born Alice Ernestine Prin in Burgundy and orphaned at 15 by an outraged mother who caught her posing nude for an old sculptor, Kiki was ‘unconventionally unattractive ... a truly remarkable woman whose essential existence was that of a demimondaine, but whose claim to our attention is based on her central presence in Montparnasse in the 1920s. She created an aura for herself through striking make-up and costume, and above all be her high spirits – she was always smiling – and her risqué stories’ – John Glassco, from his Memoirs of Montparnasse.
In 1929, Kiki was elected Queen of Montparnasse and her memoir, Kiki: Souvenirs was published in French. This, the first edition in English, appeared the following year, published by Edward Titus and his Black Manikin Press on the back of his previous success, the ‘privately printed’ Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Despite some contrariness in Hemingway’s introduction – who concluded it would be a crime to translate the original French and that whoever undertook the task would to a ‘bad job’ – and the challenges encountered by translator Samuel Putnam, who confessed that the problem was ‘not to translate Kiki’s text, but to translate Kiki’ publisher Titus was delighted by their contributions and the book a success – that is, until Bennett Cerf, then editor-in-chief of Random House, attempted to import 300 copies into America, with US Customs blocking the book’s entry.
First published in French in 1929, this first edition in English was published in 1,000 copies, with 150 intended for distribution in the United States. It was, however, "barred from the entry by the U.S. Customs on the grounds of obscenity" (Cohn), and was only published in America nearly 20 years later under the title ‘The Education of a French Model’.
References: Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse 2007. Blume, ‘Kiki of Montparnasse is brought back to life’ The New York Times 1999. Ford, Published in Paris 145-149. Hanneman, B7. Cohn, 38.
Small quarto (book size 23x18.4cm), pp. 186 [6]. Publisher’s cream wrappers printed in red and black, with Kisling’s portrait of Kiki to upper cover. Condition: Fine, completely unopened in original glassine wrapper and red wrap-around band, small tears to glassine, a little wear to upper spine, paper-board slipcase with some splits and wear along hinges. Ref: 112455 Price: HK$ 6,500
Featuring an Introduction by Ernest Hemingway, and wonderfully illustrated throughout with full page reproductions of 20 paintings by Kiki and with numerous portraits of her by Tsuguharu Foujita, Kisling, Per Krogh, Hermione David and others, together with several by photographer Man Ray, whose lover she was for eight stormy years. Translated from the French by Samuel Putnam and presented here in the original glassine wrapper, the intact red wraparound band, and the publisher's original slipcase. Born Alice Ernestine Prin in Burgundy and orphaned at 15 by an outraged mother who caught her posing nude for an old sculptor, Kiki was ‘unconventionally unattractive ... a truly remarkable woman whose essential existence was that of a demimondaine, but whose claim to our attention is based on her central presence in Montparnasse in the 1920s. She created an aura for herself through striking make-up and costume, and above all be her high spirits – she was always smiling – and her risqué stories’ – John Glassco, from his Memoirs of Montparnasse.
In 1929, Kiki was elected Queen of Montparnasse and her memoir, Kiki: Souvenirs was published in French. This, the first edition in English, appeared the following year, published by Edward Titus and his Black Manikin Press on the back of his previous success, the ‘privately printed’ Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Despite some contrariness in Hemingway’s introduction – who concluded it would be a crime to translate the original French and that whoever undertook the task would to a ‘bad job’ – and the challenges encountered by translator Samuel Putnam, who confessed that the problem was ‘not to translate Kiki’s text, but to translate Kiki’ publisher Titus was delighted by their contributions and the book a success – that is, until Bennett Cerf, then editor-in-chief of Random House, attempted to import 300 copies into America, with US Customs blocking the book’s entry.
First published in French in 1929, this first edition in English was published in 1,000 copies, with 150 intended for distribution in the United States. It was, however, "barred from the entry by the U.S. Customs on the grounds of obscenity" (Cohn), and was only published in America nearly 20 years later under the title ‘The Education of a French Model’.
References: Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse 2007. Blume, ‘Kiki of Montparnasse is brought back to life’ The New York Times 1999. Ford, Published in Paris 145-149. Hanneman, B7. Cohn, 38.
Small quarto (book size 23x18.4cm), pp. 186 [6]. Publisher’s cream wrappers printed in red and black, with Kisling’s portrait of Kiki to upper cover. Condition: Fine, completely unopened in original glassine wrapper and red wrap-around band, small tears to glassine, a little wear to upper spine, paper-board slipcase with some splits and wear along hinges. Ref: 112455 Price: HK$ 6,500