A complete collection in 11 volumes of the irregularly published journal devoted to mysticism and poetry, not illustrated, various paginations. Octavo (9 1/8 x 6 1/8 inches). Original printed wrappers. Some foxing and soiling to some covers, edgewear and small losses to a few spines, light toning, overall very good. Bruxelles: Chez René Henriquez, 1933-1939.

A complete run in 11 issues of a curious journal co-founded by René Baert (1904-1945), a Belgian writer and poet; Camille Goemans (1900-1960), a Belgian surrealist writer and gallery owner; and Marc Eemans (1907-1998), the controversial Belgian visual artist and poet. Earlier in his career, Eemans was closely affiliated with the Surrealist movement, was a member of the Société du Mystère, and was one of the editors of "Distances", the first official magazine of the surrealists. In 1930, Eemans broke with other members of the Société du Mystère and shifted more toward the esoteric and occult. In 1930, together with Camille Goemans - who had also split with the Belgian Surrealists - he founded the Hermès publishing house, and in 1933, together with Baert, they started publishing the eponymous magazine.

The magazine is devoted to the relationship between mysticism and poetry, two things that the editors considered to be either "mysteriously linked" or "radically opposed", based on the editorial prefacing the first issue. The 1920s and 1930s saw a revival of mysticism in Belgium, which manifested in both a renewed interest in medieval mysticism as well as an expression of mysticism in traditional religious practices. According to an article from the Journal of European Periodical Studies, the eleven issues of Hermès "contained primary source texts, comprising French translations of medieval mystical texts from the Western and Eastern traditions as well as translations of Symbolist and Romantic poetry, on the one hand, and essays exploring the bonds that connected poetical and mystical texts from various traditions and epochs, on the other." ("Mediating Medieval Mystical Literature in Interwar Belgium", Tijl Nuyts & Veerle Fraeters, Journal of European Periodical Studies, Winter 2021)

Contributors to this journal included René Allendy, René Baert, William Blake, Jean de Bosschère, Léon Chestov, Henri Corbin, Marcel Decorte, Émile Dermenghem, Maître Eckhart, Marc Eemans, Omar ibn Al Faridh, Bernard Groethuysen, Friedrich Gundolf, S ur Hadewych, Martin Heidegger, Franz Hellens, Karl Jaspers, Marcel Lecomte, Pierre Leyris, Jacques Masui, Georges Méautis, John Middleton Murry, Henriette Meyer, Paracelsus, André Rolland de Renéville, Denis de Rougemont, Jelal-Od-Din Roumi, Albert-Marie Schmidt, Suhrawardi d'Alep, Thomas Traherne, Jean Wahl, and others.

Scarce institutionally in North America.

Book ID: 53592

Price: $2,250.00