Goethes Buch Suleika, gefolgt vom Schenkenbuch : dem Westöstlichen Divan entliehen und mit 14 auf den Stein gezeichneten Farblithographien versehen

Frankfurt am Main: Ars librorum de Beauclair, 1966. #262 of an edition of 370. Fine. Folio (43 cm); 37, [3] pages, including color lithographs by Peiffer Watenphul, several of them full-page. Printed on velin d'Arches paper. Signed on the justification page in pencil by Peiffer Watenphul and by designer/publisher Gotthard de Beauclair. Loose as issued in original orange cloth chemise with additional lithograph (of a gingko leaf--an allusion to Goethe's poem 'Gingo biloba' written for Willemer) mounted on the upper board. Preserved in cream colored slipcase with leather backstrip titled in gilt. Lower front corner of slipcase a little bumped, else fine.

Marianne von Willemer (1784-1860) became involved with Goethe when she was about 30 and he was about 65. Among other things, they wrote poetry together. Goethe published his remarkable "West–östlicher Divan" in 1819, consisting of a series of love and mystery lyrics based on the model of the Persian poet Hafez. Among the most luminous of them is "The book of Suleika," a deeply loving poem, later set to music by Franz Schubert (Op. 14, #1, D-720, 'Was bedeutet die Bewegung?'). Goethe later revealed that "Suleika" and a few other poems in the book were actually written by Willemer! This fine press edition illustrated with appropriately bright lithograqphs by Max Peiffer Watenphul.