Bayamus
London: Editions Poetry London, 1949. First edition. 8vo, 92 pp, bound in the publisher's original black cloth titled in gilt, and in the original dust jacket illustrated by Franciszka Themerson.
The first edition of Themerson's first novel, the story of a three legged man on a roller skate, and and the book which introduced the concept of Semantic Poetry. The book is typographically fascinating, incorporating verse, concrete poetry, and symbols. Bertrand Russel, in a 1950 letter to Stefan, wrote "Perhaps the highest compliment that I can pay to your book is to say that it is nearly as made as the world," a phrase the press used as a blurb for the book in promotional materials. - Blackwell et al p. 480. Francizka's drawings which illustrate the dust jacket and endpapers are superb.
The work was reprinted in a new edition by Gaberbocchus in 1965, but a US edition didn't appear until the 1990's, courtesy of the great Exact Change imprint.
Very good, with some light rubbing to extremities and a slight splay to the boards, and some dustiness and a droplet stain to the top edge of the text block, as well as some offsetting to endpapeprs - in a ragged example of the dust jacket, toned, chipped, and nearly separated along the spine, most of which is no longer extant. Scarce in any condition. Item #30072
Price: $150.00