Leonard Smithers
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Among the publications by Smithers were rare erotic works and unique items such as books bound in human skin. He was also involved in the Savoy magazine.
In 1897 Bernard Quaritch called him the cleverest publisher in London. He was known for his taste in design and typography.
He was also considered to be quite reckless, publishing works that no one else would touch, such as Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol. The Concise Dictionary of National Biography notes that "There is little doubt that without Smithers the avant-garde movement of the 1890s might have been snuffed out". Particular attention should be drawn to three rare works presenting Modern Greek, Arabic, and other Levantine erotic tales and foolstories: La Fleur Lascive Orientale (‘Oxford’ [Bruxelles: Gay & Mlle. Doucé], 1882), anonymously translated from the originals by J.-A. Decourdemanche, an even rarer English retranslation also existing (‘Athens’ [Sheffield: Leonard Smithers], 1893); Contes Licencieux de Constantinople et de l’Asie Mineure, collected before 1893 by Prof. Jean Nicolaidès, and published after his sudden and mysterious death as the opening volume of a series imitating Kryptádia: “Contributions au Folklore Erotique” (Kleinbronn & Paris: G. Ficker [!], 1906-09, 4 vols.); and especially two modern French chapbooks, one entitled Histoires Arabes (Paris: A. Quignon, 1927), ascribed to an admittedly pseudonymous ‘Khati Cheghlou,’ and its sequel or supplement, Les Meilleures Histoires Coloniales (about 1935)
External links
Leonard Smithers by the Norman Colback Collection
