Les Chansons de la Butte. Revue Mensuelle des Cabarets Artistiques et Littéraires de Paris. No. 1 (Mai 1923) - No. 12 (Octobre - Novembre - Decembre 1924).

Paris., 1923 – 1924.. Contemporary blue cloth-backed marbled boards, original publisher's pictorial colour printed wrappers for each issue preserved, bookplate of 'Librairie du Spectacle, Garnier Arnoul' to front pastedown.. Small folio. (274 x 194 mm).. Printed text in double columns in French with songs, articles, letters, quotations, printed music, caricatures, vignettes and photographic portraits. A very scarce complete set of the revue devoted to the singers and songs of Montmartre.Founded by Roger Toziny ('poète-chansonnier') as a forum - an impartial one - for the discussion, appreciation and criticism of those songs from the cabarets, night-clubs and music halls of Montmartre. 'Les Chansons de la Butte' looks back to the heyday of Le Chat Noir and its aftermath but also to the contemporary song. The first issue features a photograph of Henri Fursy (Président de l'Association Amicale des Chansonneurs) to the front wrapper and begins with a laudatory letter from Jacques Ferny (the author of a considerable number of fin-de-siècle songs) and continues in similar fashion.Contributors include Xavier Privas (Antoine-Paul Tavarel), Marcel Say, René-Paul Groffe, Charles d'Avray, Pierre Mérop, Henri Guilac, Eugène Lemercier, Philéas Lebesgue, Jacques Ferny, Maurice Mauclay et al.For reasons unknown, 'Les Chansons de la Butte' seems to have ceased publication at the end of 1924. The final number truncates those for October, November and December into a single issue and it may be that Toziny was unable to assemble enough material to continue, this, despite having mentioned the conclusion of the yearly 'abonnement' (subscription) and the invitation to renew printed in this final number.Complete sets, as per the present set, are very scarce and we can locate only that example at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Europe, together with two in the US (Duke and Vanderbilt) as well as the copy at Melbourne in Australia.