No language is rude that can boast polite writers said English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898).

Now a part of literary history, The Yellow Book first appeared in London in April 1894.  Edited by Henry Harland and artist Aubrey Beardsley, it was to some people an offence and, in the Westminster Gazette, one critic talked about ‘an Act of parliament to make this kind of thing illegal’

Scandalous in the extreme, it was a heady ray of sunshine to many young people and for those with an open mind who endeavoured to remain young at heart and wanted to break new ground and clear the air in the overstuffy drawing rooms of late Victorian England.

Irish poet, dramatist and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature William Butler Yeats, considered a pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, was a contributor, with a host of others that included Kenneth Grahame, who wrote ‘Wind in the Willows. Another was Henry James a key figure of 19th-century literary realism as well as the mysterious “Yellow Dwarf”.

The copy we are offering as a prize for members who join the Culture Concept Circle prior to May 2010 is a bright first edition in good order and in an archival cover. It contains a representative selection of works with all their virtues and vices, and is a volume worth reading and keeping for its own sake.

Published in 1949 it features a variety of illustrations, including the infamous Yellow Dwarf (not the Red one) and a select number by the enigmatic Mr Beardsley, who some say slept by day and wrote by candlelight at night and was relieved of his post as art editor after a year ‘because of tragic misfortune arising out of quite other matters’.

Part of the reason the publication was so scandalous is because its title contained the word Yellow, a colour which had been chosen to represent a ‘notoriously immoral French novel’.

Basically, the publication was considered ‘decadent’ because it ‘dared to be different’, which in itself today is a great reason to own it.

WIN A GREAT COPY – JOIN THE CULTURE CONCEPT CIRCLE BY MAY 31 – GO IN THE DRAW TO WIN BECOME A MEMBER NOW..CLICK HERE

The Yellow Book: A Selection  London: The Bodley Head 1949
A First Edition : From the library of our Creative Co-ordinator and Presenter of the Evolution of Art, Design & Style Carolyn McDowall, April 2010. Win it in a Competition for Members of the Culture Concept Circle.

The Winner of the Yellow Book was Helen Johns from Brisbane

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