LUST POEM
Lust Poem by Simon Casimir Wilson was the first book to be published by Cordes Press in 2021. Due to the erotic content, the book was designed to give the reader the impression that the book is one of scant information as to who was involved to protect their identities or have a plain wrapper covering the book and to be kept in a private library either by institutions or by collectors of the genre.
Lust Poem is an Alphabet book, and these are often associated with being instructive for children. The text is usually rhymes but always short, fun, and usually colourful, a format followed in erotic ones such as Alphabet Pornographique by Joseph Apoux c. 1880 purely illustrative with a vein of Victorian conservatism through to a cherub illustration style with text in Abécédaire des Filles et de L'Enfant Chéri by Mac Orlan and Pascin (1936).
Author: Simon Casimir Wilson
Simon Casimir Wilson, author on erotic literature through his “The Sign of Nine Press” and former curator at Tate Britain, has used the approach of economy of word in constructing Lust Poem, conveying the meaning of lust from the perspective of the male towards a female in 3 words for each letter A to Z and by doing so has powerfully illustrated all that makes the human feeling of lust come alive.
Lust Poem was originally published in 2009 by Simon in his imprint in an edition of three copies; the number relates to a famous story about Oscar Wilde’s great poem, The Sphinx.
Simon has commented to me that Lust Poem was titled as such without wondering whether it might not be a poem and came to him as an alphabet. Simon later realised that in choosing the precise form that he did was setting himself an exceptional task: alphabet books do not normally involve having to find both a verb and a noun starting with the same letter and that say something together.
Illustration
Lust Poem features a 3-colour woodblock print by the late multi-faceted artist and printmaking lecturer Ralph Kiggell who also created large papercuts and collages, illustrated compilations of writings and poetry, produced artist’s books, murals, and mosaic installations in his long career.
Ralph studied Chinese language and culture at The School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and later lived in Kunming, China, and Hong Kong, where he worked as an editor. Later in life Ralph took up woodblock printing training in Japan with the Yoshida family of printmakers and later with Akira Kurosaki.
Ralph has had his prints and books collected by both private and public collections, including the British Library, the US Library of Congress, and the Yale Centre for British Art. He was vice-chair of the International Mokuhanga Association from 2017 and a member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers. Ralph’s collaboration with The Old Stile Press, “The Third Thing”, an artistic and poetic study of water, received the British book award in book design and bookbinding in 2014.
Type Plates
The titles and run in text is the first use of a new type face, Joshua Sans designed by Lawrence Beck and the main test is Edward Script ITC printed from plates made by Lyme Bay Press.
The Edition
This title comes in 2 editions, 10 specials in pink quarter leather housed in a slip case and 50 ordinary copies, both with a double page spread of a 3-colour woodcut printed on Bunkoshi Antique Japanese paper.