PSST.! IMAGES PAR FORAIN CARAN D'ACHE (Complete Run - 85 Issues); (Anti-Semitica)

Caran d'Ache (Emmanuel Poire) and Jean-Louis Forain

Published by Libraire Plon, Paris, France, 1899

About this Item

IN FRENCH Folio. Red cloth-bound volume of all 85 issues of "Psst.!" (the stylized title being a direct, satirical jab at Zola's "J'Accuse!". 15 3/4 in. x 11 1/4 in. Blind-ruling to both front and rear panels. Not paginated consecutively, but each issue four pages in length. Primarily cartoons and caricatures. Text in French, and advertisements. Age-mottled red boards of textured cloth, with a simple one-word gilt title to spine (PSST.). Marbled endpapers. Some rubbing to individual issue wraps, occasional light toning and staining to the margins of one or two pages. On the whole, internally quite clean and bright. A complete run of a stridently antisemitic French-language newspaper that began publication only a fortnight following the launch of Emile Zola's famous "J'accuse.!" published in L'Aurore to protest the false accusations made against and jailing of the Alsatian Jewish French Army officer Alfred Dreyfus. The two creators had previously worked together on another periodical which maintained a pro-Dreyfus political stance, but after a less-than-favorable stance from their readership, radically reversed poles. This publication grew out of that reversal. "Caran d'Ache," the pseudonym of Emmanuel Poire (1858-1909), and "Louis-Henri Forain," that of Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931). Officer Alfred Dreyfus was accused of selling French Army military secrets to their sworn enemies, the Russians. This publication slandered Dreyfus and, by extension, all Jews in France. When Emile Zola penned a scathing indictment of antisemitism in France, "J'Accuse" ("I Accuse"), Forain et d'Ache jumped into the fray, and Zola was charged with libel and went into exile in England. The shameless forgery was eventually discovered, but Dreyfus was found guilty again at a second trial and went back into prison. This ignited international outrage sufficient eventually to clear Dreyfus's good name and along with it, that of Zola. Owing to the unwelcome international exposure and the eventual release of Dreyfus from prison Forain and d'Ache ended the newspaper at #85, dated September 16, 1899. All in, a scarce item in remarkably good condition. A remarkably sturdy, quite scarce as a complete collection. Still handsome exemplar of an important item. (from L.J. Hammar of Structure, Verses, Agency Books).

Seller Inventory # 86734

Bibliographic Details

• Title: PSST.! IMAGES PAR FORAIN CARAN D'ACHE (Complete Run - 85 Issues); (Anti-Semitica)
• Publisher: Libraire Plon, Paris, France
• Publication Date: 1899
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good Plus
• Seller catalogs:
  • Radical, Counterculture, Beats