Aafjes, Bertus

[EROTICA] Omne Animal: Gedichten [Every Animal: Poems]

The Hague: Mansarde Pers, 1944. Item #1600

Large quarto (33 × 25 cm). [64] pp. Title printed in decorative calligraphic typography. Illustrated throughout with 15 elegant erotic line drawings by Cees A. B. Bantzinger. Original publisher’s limp wrappers with yapp edges, sewn as issued. Printed on Simili Japon paper. Copy no. 201 from a limited edition of 275 numbered copies.

A rare clandestine Dutch wartime press book, privately printed during the German occupation and issued by the underground Mansarde Pers, one of the notable literary presses active in occupied Holland during World War II. The colophon states that the volume was printed in the summer of 1944 and contains a selection of published and unpublished erotic poems by Bertus Aafjes accompanied by drawings by Cees A. B. Bantzinger. The text was set in Excelsior type and printed on Simili Japon paper in a limited edition.

Bertus Aafjes (1914–1993), among the major Dutch poets of the wartime generation, became known for poetry connected to resistance against the German occupation. Omne Animal occupies a distinctive place within his bibliography as an unusually luxurious and openly erotic production issued under clandestine conditions. Scholarly discussions of Dutch underground publishing specifically note the work as a richly illustrated erotic poetry collection produced while Aafjes and Bantzinger were associated with the hidden operations of the Mansarde Pers.

Moderate foxing and age toning to wrappers and margins; spine somewhat fragile with minor wear and separation at several gatherings; internally generally clean and well-preserved. A very good copy overall.

Price: $350.00