Rimbaud, Arthur

First edition (7 1/4 x 4 7/8 in.; 184 x 124 mm), as issued, publisher's wrappers printed in red and black. Light spotting on the first cover. 

Light spotting on the first cover.
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First edition of the only book Rimbaud published in his lifetime. One of perhaps 500 copies printed. 

Une Saison en enfer was written when the poet was only twenty years old and his intense relationship with Verlaine was unraveling. After borrowing money from his mother, Rimbaud met with the publisher, Poot, in Brussels to have his poems in prose issued. In October 1873 when the volume was printed, Rimbaud could not pay for more than a dozen copies (those he sent to his friends). The remainder of the printing was relegated to the printer's basement.

In 1901, Léon Losseau, a lawyer from Mons, Belgium, and Rimbaud enthusiast, discovered the remainder of the edition. He gave this copy to another Rimbaud enthusiast, Colonel Simon Godchot, with the inscription: "Au Colonel Godchot qui s'intéresse tant à Rimbaud. 18.2.38 Léon Losseau". He published Arthur Rimbaud ne varietur in 1937.