A Season in Hell | 1986, first edition, one of 1000 copies, photogravures by Robert Mapplethorpe, signed.

Illustrated with eight dust-grain photogravures by Robert Mapplethorpe.

Mapplethorpe's enigmatic style brings Rimbaud's dark prose to life in a way that has never been seen before and will likely never be seen again.

First edition of this translation by Paul Schmidt, limited to 1,000 numbered copies signed by both Schmidt and Mapplethorpe and with the original 4-page long "Limited Editions Club Letter" loosely inserted.

First published in 1873, A Seaoson In Hell is Arthur Rimbaud's prose poem writtend in a frenzy after the break-up of Rimbaud's relationship with Paul erlaine who shot him with a revolver in the summer of that year. Mapplethorpe's illustrations "display a certain visionary quality" (Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English).

This translation is by the cult poet and actor Paul Schmidt (1934-99). In his introduction Schmidt comments that Rimbaud's poem "is a work of adolescent passion - not the passion of exuberance, but passion as suffering. It is the record of a failed attempt to create a new identity by creating a new world. Passion is universal, yet some particular facts may help to explain Rimbaud's feelings, to illuminate the smoky density, the nerve-edge screams, the sulphurous flicker of this little book".

First edition, limited issue, signed. Bound in dramatic dark red Morocco leather. Housed in the publisher's black cloth slipcase. With all 8 tissue guarded photogravure plates by Robert Mapplethorpe. A fine example both inside and out.

Published by Limited Editions Club, New York, 1986.