The Yellow Book. An Illustrated Quarterly. [13 Volumes, complete]

London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane (then) John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1894 13 volumes (1894-1897), complete. First editions, mixed issues. Volumes 3-12 are apparent first issues with rear ads; volumes 1, 2, and 13 are apparent second issues, without ads. Octavo. Illustrated throughout. Publisher's yellow pictorial cloth with cover designs by Aubrey Beardsley and others stamped in black, top edges untrimmed. Some volumes bear an engraved bookplate signed in pencil by the designer. Some spines with light soiling, some covers lightly soiled. A few corners slightly curled. Overall, a very nice, complete set. Quite scarce as a complete set. This famous, epochal, and notorious periodical includes work by all the great figures of the 1890's including Beerbohm, Aubrey Beardsley, Henry James, Yeats, Gissing, Kenneth Grahame, Ernest Dowson, Lionel Johnson, Baron Corvo, H. G. Wells, and many others. Beardsley's illustrations are well-represented. The Yellow Book is the most prominent expression of the ideas of the Romantic Revivalists. It contains some of the most characteristic work of Aubrey Beardsley, from whose name it is inseparable. Many of the contributions represent first editions of the early writings of men whose names have since become famous. It was in his capacity as art-editor of The Yellow Book that Beardsley made his first claim to public notice. The earlier volumes contain many designs from his pencil, in addition to others of the best known black-and-white artists of the day..