Fantazius Mallare: A Mysterious Oath

Hard cover. Green cloth with black title to spine. Octavo. 174 pages and 10 full page b/w plates of extraordinary illustrations by Wallace Smith. "Limited edition for private circulation only, consisting of two thousand and twenty five numbered copies. Only two thousand copies for sale. Published September 1922." This copy marked number 1, and appears to be from a second print run. No dust jacket (if issued). name to top of front free end paper. Very good.

A novel of decadence and mystic existentialism, Fantazius Mallare is a story of a mad recluse—a genius sculptor and painter who is at war with reason. Rather than commit suicide, his doting madness dictates that he must revolt against all evidence of life that exists outside himself. He destroys all of his work and then seeks out a woman who will devote herself to his Omnipotence. What follows is a glorious trek into a horrifying enlightening insanity.

FANTAZIUS MALLARE was circulated in a limited edition 2,000 copy hardcover, which contained black-and-white illustrations by Wallace Smith. The book was quickly confiscated by the Federal Government, which branded it "lewd, obscene and lascivious" and further charged Hecht with "defiling the U.S.A. mails with its transport" The eminent Clarence Darrow succeeded in winning an acquittal for Hecht, who (as claimed by Gregory William Mank) found himself "loving every minute" of the 1922 legal proceedings.