VOLUME ONE, NUMBER TWO OF VERVE, 1938, THE AMERICAN EDITION, WITH ORIGINAL WRAPPERS BY BRAQUE AND FULL-PAGE COLOR LITHOGRAPHS BY KANDINSKY AND MASSON

TÉRIADE, Efstratios (ELEFTHERIADES, Efstratios). Verve. Volume 1, Number 2 (March-June 1938). Paris: (Imprimerie des Beaux-Arts), [1938]. Slim folio, original illustrated wrappers by Braque, original cardboard box. $1200.

First American edition of this exceptional second issue of Verve, with cover art by Georges Braque, four original lithographs (two each by Kandinsky and André Masson), and articles by James Joyce, Hemingway, Valéry and Malraux.

"Fifty years ago in Paris, the magazine to look for was Verve, which first came out in December 1937 and kept going in one form or another till 1960. That first cover (by Henri Matisse) sang out from the other side of the street in a way that made us run across the road to look at it more closely. And when we turned its pages, Verve had a bosomy, full-fleshed, slightly slithery quality that this former subscriber would know in his sleep" (John Russell). Art critic Efstratios Eleftheriades, under the nom de plume "Tériade," founded Verve, with the financial assistance of David Smart, publisher of Esquire and Apparel Arts. "The magazine, a quarterly review of arts and letters, was lavish in design and challenging in content. Teriade's view of the world of art and literature was personal, bold and compelling" (Rick Gagliano). Once called "the most beautiful magazine in the world," Verve contained original lithographs by the most famous artists of the day— Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Léger, Miró, Chagall— with numerous lithographs appearing for the first time. First American edition, published the same year as the French, with English text translated by Robert Sage. With original subscription card laid in.

Book fresh and fine, scarce matching original carboard box expertly repaired.