Title
Prospectus for The Yellow Book: An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume V, April 1895.
Coverage
London:
Publisher
John Lane,
Date
1895.
Description
Before the April 1895 Yellow Book appeared, Oscar Wilde’s arrest and prosecution for “gross indecency” blew the top off the Bodley Head. In America during the crisis, John Lane sent frantic communications to his staff. Threatened by homophobic authors demanding a clean sweep of the premises and its publications, he ordered Beardsley to be removed from The Yellow Book, because his contributions as art editor were such magnets for controversy. Henry Harland, the magazine’s literary editor, was appalled, but remained loyal to Lane. Beardsley was stunned and dazed. He was part of Oscar Wilde’s circle, but not of the gay male underworld. Left stranded professionally, he found an unlikely savior: Leonard Smithers (1861–1907), known for selling pornography. Beardsley soon trumpeted his new freedom, taking this image drawn for Lane and adapting it for Smithers’s Catalogue of Rare Books (on display), with the innocent-looking faun transformed into a satyr-like Pan.
Source
From the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press