Le Livre Blanc

[Paris]: [Maurice Sachs and Jacques Bonjean], 1928. First edition. [6], 7-80, [6] pp. Quarto folded wrappers, title and monogram printed on front cover. Printed on Montval laid paper, handmade by Gaspard Maillol, by Ducros et Colas, printers, Paris. Slightest occasional spotting to leaves, still a fine copy, housed in a chemise and slipcase.

One of 31 numbered copies printed, of which ten were reserved for the author. The true and extremely rare first edition of one of Cocteau's most extraordinary and emblematic works. Published anonymously, it is the first time Cocteau directly wrote on the subject of homosexuality- as Claude Arnaud notes in his definitive biography, "this indirect praising of homosexual love, experienced as 'one of the most mysterious workings of the divine masterpiece,' was the kind of work that might once have helped the adolescent Cocteau to rise above opprobrium and secure his self-esteem." Cocteau never allowed his name to be directly attributed to the text of this book, although later editions bore his preface and sometimes illustrations. As Frédéric Canovas writes, "From the first edition to the last one published, while he was still alive, Jean Cocteau systematically refused to print his name on the cover of Le Livre Blanc: the text was to remain anonymous, although Cocteau himself had not hesitated to demonstrate his intimate relationship to the book by illustrating it on several occasions, and by adding a short manuscript note to the second French edition and a longer foreword to the English one. Indeed, of all Cocteau's books, Le Livre Blanc is probably one of his most confusing, because of both its subject and its form or forms. Even today it remains difficult to consider this book. The critic finds himself lost among the multiple editions, the various versions of the text, and the many illustrations, as well as the prefaces, manuscript notes and frontispieces. Despite its nature as a confidential text... Le Livre Blanc has appeared in no less than 13 different editions from 1928 to the present.... the first edition is anonymous, bears no mention of the publisher's name, and contains no illustrations. The printing was limited to 21 copies, including 10 author's copies, and is, needless to say, almost impossible to find today."

Pia, Les Livres de l'Enfer, 812-813. Canovas, "Jean Cocteau's Le Livre Blanc: Sex, Text and Images," Word & Image, 23(1):1-15, January 2007. Georgel, Jean Cocteau et Son Temps, 402. Young, The Male Homosexual in Literature, 709 (for the English edition).