Charles Hirsch
Charles Hirsch (c. 1860 – ) was a French bookseller in Victorian London who sold French literature and ran a clandestine trade in expensive pornography. He was involved in the writing of Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, an early work of homosexual pornography, and described Oscar Wilde's involvement in its compilation.
Hirsch's bookshop Librairie Parisienne was at Coventry Street, London. He also published in Paris and translated pornographic works from French to English and vice versa. In 1899, he was charged with distributing indecent material and was sentenced to nine months in Wormwood Scrubs. He published a translation of Teleny into French in 1934.
Hirsch and Oscar Wilde
Hirsch knew Oscar Wilde and claimed to have sold him various works of erotica, including The Sins of the Cities of the Plain in 1890.
Hirsch describes how Wilde brought the manuscript of Teleny to his bookshop in 1890, instructing that it be held until a friend, who would present Wilde's card, came to collect it. "A few days later, one of the young gentlemen I had seen with [Wilde] came to retrieve the package. He kept it for a while and then returned it, saying in turn: 'Would you kindly give this to one of our friends who will come to pick it up in the same person's name.'" Hirsch recounts three further repetitions of this "identical ceremony" before the package made its way back to Wilde. Hirsch defied the strict instructions not to open the package while it was in his possession and claims that it was written in several different hands, which lends additional support to his theory that it was authored in "round robin" style by a small group of Wilde's close associates.
Charles Hirsch is referenced several times in The Private Case by Patrick J. Kearney as Carles Hirsh
Carles Hirsch and The Private Case
The Private Case of the British Library is a collection of pornographic books and other items, generally unavailable to the public. Established in 1857, the core of the collection comes from the bequest of the Victorian collector Henry Spencer Ashbee in 1900 to the British Museum. Other significant contributions include bequests from Charles Reginald Dawes and Beecher Moore, both made in 1964. None of the items in the collection have been purchased or acquired through Copyright deposit library.
In 1981, Patrick J. Kearney compiled a bibliography of 1,914 significant books in the Private Case, which features a substantial introduction by American social critic and folklorist Gershon Legman. The collection includes works by notable figures in the realm of written erotica, such as the John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, the Marquis de Sade, and William Simpson Potter.
Page 176 ÉTIENNE DE JOUY, V. J. originale (Bruxelles, 1868). (The titlepage headed: Pour servir à l’histoire de nos moeurs.) Paris: 1905. (Carles Hirsch?) 8vo. pp. 141. Original printed wrappers preserved. No. 262 of 300 on vélin à la forme. Dawes Bequest. (13 June 1964.) P.C. 13.de.6.
442. MEMOIRS of Fanny Hill ... A New and Corrected Edition. Vol. 1 (- II). Privately Printed. (Paris: Carles Hirsch? c. 1923.) 8vo. Two volumes. pp. v + 333, pagination continuous. Frontispiece and ten plates (by Paul Avril?) with two decorati0ns and a portrait. Dawes Bequest. No. 1 of 35 copies on special paper, containing two copies of each plate in different states. The Publisher's Note has manuscript notes in pencil by C. R. Dawes. (13 June 1964.) P.C. 13.h.3.
806. (Histoire de Dom B ...) The Life and Adventures of Father Silas .. . now first translated from the original French edition (dated 1742). London: 1907. (Paris: ?Carles Hirsch, 1910.) 8vo. pp. 185. Frontispiece and 9 plates (by Paul Avril?). Original wrappers preserved. The text printed within a fancy blue border.. No. 2 of 300 copies. Dawes Bequest. The translator's Note is dated June 1896. (13 June 1964.) P.C. 13.g.31.
1596. ROMANO, (Guilin). "I Sonetti lussuriosi, anno 1525." (Reproductions of a set of 16 drawings by Romano, purportedly illustrating the "Sonetti lussuriosi" of Pietro Aretino. Preceded by a set of engravings after Romano by Marc Antonio Raimondi. Without text.) (Paris: Sybarite Club, 1905.) Obl. 8vo. Dawes Bequest: Note: These are not the authentic drawings pretended. Printed for Private Circulation, (by Carles Hirsch or H. S. Nichols?) (13 June 1964.) P.C. 13.d.1.
1883. "TELENY", or, "The Reverse of the Medal". A Physiological Romance of Today. In Two Volumes. Volume I (- n). Cosmopoli (London: ?Leonard Smithers) : 1893. 8vo. Two volumes, pp. 163, 191. Limited to 200 copies, unnumbered. Original front wrappers only preserved. Despite claims of authorship by Wilde, this appears to be a collective work by several hands. See no. 1886 post. P.C. 31.f.37.
1884. (Another edition.) "Teleny" ... Cosmopoli (Paris?) : 1906. 8vo. Two volumes. pp. 148, 178. No. 67 of 200 copies. Ex-libris C. R. Dawes, with the Dawes Bequest label. Apparently a piracy by Nichols, in Paris, of an edition by Carles Hirsch. Inserted into this copy are the sheets from the French edition of 1934 containing the Introduction by Carles Hirsch. (13 June 1964.) P.C. 13.g.32.
1885. "Teleny." Etude physiologique. Traduit de l'anglais sur le manuscrit originale révisé par l'auteur. Tome Premier (- Second). Paris (Marcel Seheur?) : 1934. 8vo. Two volumes in one, pp. 133, 127. No. 59 of 300 copies on vélin teinté d'Arches. Original pale lilac wrappers preserved. From the Girard collection; donated to the British Library by E. J. Dingwall. Printed for members of the `Ganymède Club.' The Introduction is by Carles Hirsch. (9 April 1949.) P.C. 15.b.II.
1886. (Another edition of the English text.) "Teleny," or, The Reverse of the Medal. Paris: Olympia Press (1958). 8vo. pp. 203. Original wrappers preserved. No. 62 of the Traveller's Companion series. P.C. 17.a.34.
A brief introduction, unsigned (possibly by Maurice Girodias?), spans pages (5-6) and attributes Teleny positively to Oscar Wilde. The history of Teleny is too well-known to repeat here; it is discussed in detail by Carles Hirsch in his Introduction, reprinted in the French edition of 1934, most of which has been translated and published in Phillis and Eberhard Kronhausen's book "Erotic Fantasies" (pp. 143-147). A summary of Hirsch's account can also be found in H. Montgomery Hyde's Introduction to Martin Secker's expurgated text of "Teleny," published in 1966 in London, as part of the now-defunct Icon series of pocket-books. It should be noted, however, that the French translation, true to its claims on the title page, was prepared from the original manuscript, relocating the events of the story back to London and restoring the missing Prologue.
References
- Chris White, "Nineteenth-century writings on homosexuality: a sourcebook", CRC Press, 2002, ISBN 0-203-00240-7, p.285
- Matt Cook, "London and the culture of homosexuality, 1885–1914", Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture, Cambridge University Press, 2003 ISBN 0-521-82207-6, p.28
- Joseph Bristow, "Remapping the Sites of Modern Gay History: Legal Reform, Medico-Legal Thought, Homosexual Scandal, Erotic Geography", Journal of British Studies 46 (January 2007) 116–142. doi:10.1086/508401
- Michael Camille, Adrian Rifkin, "Other objects of desire: collectors and collecting queerly", Art History Special Issue, Wiley-Blackwell, 2001, ISBN 0-631-23361-X, p.87
- Olive Classe, "Encyclopedia of literary translation into English, Volume 1", Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 1-884964-36-2, p.419
- ""For Artistic Purposes." Is it an Offence to Sell a Book "Clothed in Decent Obscurity"?". Morning Leader. 27 January 1899. p. 5. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
- Edouard Roditi, "Oscar Wilde", New Directions Publishing, 1986, ISBN 0-8112-0995-4, p.166
- Harford Montgomery Hyde, "The trials of Oscar Wilde", Courier Dover Publications, 1973, ISBN 0-486-20216-X, p.87
- Pamela K. Gilbert, "Imagined Londons", SUNY Press, 2002, ISBN 0-7914-5501-7, p.66
- Harford Montgomery Hyde, "The love that dared not speak its name: a candid history of homosexuality in Britain", Little, Brown, 1970, p.141
- Matt Cook, "A New City of Friends': London and Homosexuality in the 1890s", History Workshop Journal 56 (2003) 33–58. doi:10.1093/hwj/56.1.33
- Nelson, James. Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000
- Robert Gray and Christopher Keep, "An Uninterrupted Current: Homoeroticism and collaborative authorship in Teleny", in Marjorie Stone, Judith Thompson (edd) "Literary Couplings: Writing Couples, Collaborators, and the Construction of Authorship", University of Wisconsin Press, 2007, ISBN 0-299-21764-7, p.193
- Edouard Roditi, "Oscar Wilde", New Directions Publishing, 1986, ISBN 0-8112-0995-4, p.168
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Charles_Hirsch_(bookseller) ]
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