The Yellow Book: An Illustrated Quarterly [Complete Set, First Editions] Beerbohm, Max; Gissing, George; Gosse, Edmund; Grahame, Kenneth; Harland, Henry; Housman, Laurence; James, Henry; Le Gallienne, Richard; Leighton, Sir Frederick; Pennell, Joseph; Robinson, Charles; Sickert, Walter; Strang, William; Symons, Arthur; Wells, H.G., Yeats, William Butler, Et Al. Modern Art,Modern Firsts

8vo; various paginations; numerous plates. AN ATTRACTIVE COMPLETE SET OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY DOCUMENT OF LONDON'S DECADENT NINETIES. The Yellow Book was conceived in 1894 by the artist and controversialist Aubrey Beardsley and the American novelist Henry Harland. In its form and content it was set against traditional Victorian literary publishing. Each volume features attractive debossed decoration, the layout and typography are elegant and generous, and contributors include most of the leading lights of fin de siècle art and literature. The opening story is Henry James' "The Death of the Lion", and other notable writers include Kenneth Grahame, George Gissing, Max Beerbohm, W.B. Yeats and H.G. Wells. The journal is also well known for its artwork, and in particular the ongoing battle between Beardsley and the publisher John Lane over the boundaries of decency and artistic merit. Volume III features works by Beardsley under his own name and two pseudonyms – an attempt by him to show the hypocrisy of his critics, who sure enough praised the pseudonymous works and damned those they knew to be by Beardsley. The set is in good condition: bindings are worn, and there is uniform fading and scuffing to the bindings along about one inch to the righ-hand side, away from the spines; internally the volumes are uniformly very good – notably there is very little of the foxing that usually affects this set; some spotting to prelims but generally clean and bright. Personal bookplates to some volumes; Vol IV somewhat brighter, partially uncut and with trimmed edges; all other edges deckled and pages cut. This is a large set and shipping will be charged at cost.