CONTEMPO VOL IV NRS 1+2 / BLUES VOL1 NRS 5+6+INDEX -BRYHERS COPY

FOUR RARE VOLUMES (TWO DIFFERENT REVIEWS) BOUND TOGETHER - FORMERLY BRYHER'S COPY

Ford, Charles Henri, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Nancy Cunard and others
CONTEMPO A REVIEW OF BOOKS AND PERSONALITIES. VOL IV Nrs 1, 2
Chapel Hill: Contempo, April 5 1933 and May 15, 1933
Two numbers bound together in contemporary cloth covered blue boards with gilt spine embossing (titles) - uniformly 23 x 14cm, 16pp including paper wrappers. Two separate numbers of this important literary and culture magazine which reflected the, then, American avant garde and regularly covered the Jazz age and European "imported" art. The first volume has original contributions from Sinclair Lewis, Nancy Cunard, Joseph Wood Krutch, Henry Fairchild, Paul Dekruif, Grace Stone Coates and Richard Boleslavski, while the second number has an article by Lion Feuchtwanger on "Hitler and the Jews" and Count Carlo Sforsa on "Mussolini: A clinical cartoon". Other articles are by Henry Williamson, Gleb Botkin,  Ben Reitman, Sinclair Lewis, Sherry Mangan, Eugene Joffe and Isaac Goldberg. Cover designed by John Vassos. The first volume has an advert for Joyce's Ulysses to be published by random house in "a complete, unabridged copy" ... provided that it is cleared by the court..." Scarce.
BOUND TOGETHER WITH
Ford, Charles Henri
BLUES. A MAGAZINE OF NEW RHYTHMS. VOL 1 NR 5 and 6 + INDEX TO VOL 1
Mississippi: Blues, July 1929
23 x 15cm, 24pp and 34pp respectively (numbered 106 -130 and 131 - 164) and proceeded by the index to the entire Volume 1 which is 4pp. A single number of this rare Jazz age literary review which was published and edited by Charles Henri Ford. This number has a major text: "2" from the Four Prose Choruses by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) and other contributions from John Kemmerer, Pauline Leader, James Farrell, John Herrmann, Parker Tyler, Kenneth Rexroth, Harry Robert Roskolkier, Harold Anton, Joseph Rocco, Horace Gregory, Joseph Mitchell, Harry Crosby (Trumpet of Departure) and Oliver Jenkins. Nr 6 is the "expatriate" number and has H.D.'s third contribution to the magazine ("3") as part of the series and texts by Oliver Jenkins, Gertrude Stein's poem on George Hugnet, Leigh Hoffman, Eugene Jolas, Kay Boyle, Walter Lowenfels, Harold Salemson, Georges Linze, Laurence Veil, Harry Crosby (House of Ra). There is also a full page advert for the Black Sun Press. The original wrappers are not retained in this binding.
This copy is a decommissioned library copy but does not have any institutional markings and is in fact in near fine condition - interestingly this copy was originally in Bryher's (pseudonym of the poet Annie Winifred Ellerman) library - which given that Bryher had been the lesbian lover of Hilda Doolittle from 1918 onwards until the mid 20s makes this an interesting association copy. Bryher was also close to many other significant figures including James Joyce, Sylvia Beach, Berenice Abbott and Gertrude Stein. Very minor chipping to a couple of pages else near fine in slightly worn period bindings. Each individual number of the journals are scarce in any case but the link between owner and content makes it quite collectible.