The 1890s was a remarkable age in English letters. Modernism, with its questioning of traditional modes of expression, was waiting in the wings but was not yet a dominant force. What was clear was that older, absolute modes of literary expression were dying. In France the symbolist movement was an early manifestation of this spirit. England, under the sixth decade of rule by Queen Victoria, was increasingly in an age of high moral tone, stuffiness, and repression on the one hand and dissolute behavior on the other. The result was an age of decadence.

One review characterized this spirit--The Yellow Book. Conceived of as a magazine that would appear in book format, in hardcovers, it featured both emerging and established talents. Its signature yellow cover with a black drawing was first done by the English artist Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898). Beardsley's sinister art adorned the cover of the first four numbers and inside pages of the early issues. Although not associated with the magazine afterward, he set its tone.

This is the first number of The Yellow Book. The laughing woman with the pock mark and her companion, seem up to something gay and possibly nefarious.

The third number of The Yellow Book continues the suggestion of the illicit. Here is a woman at her toilette. The lamps on her dressing table look like street lamps. Could this be another night piece?

The designs by succeeding cover artists, however identified, lack the fineness, balance, and bracing wit of Beardsley.

Another young talent particularly associated with The Yellow Book was the wit, dandy, satirist, parodist, and caricaturist Max Beerbohm (1872-1954). Beerbohm's memorable essay, "A Defense of Cosmetics," an exercise in light self-parody appeared in the first issue of the magazine. He continued to write and draw for succeeding issues. Here in number XI is his essay, "The Happy Hypocrite," whose title contributes a phrase to the language.

Here is Yeats' poem, "The Blessed," the lead item in the final issue of The Yellow Book and a typical piece of late Celtic twlightism. Yeats (1865-1839) was an Irish poet, dramatist and prose writer. He was one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. Yeats received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

Even the first edition of The Importance of Being Earnest avoided mentioning the name of the author directly.

Why yellow? No one can say for sure. Possibly the reason was that French books, notably J.K. Huysman's (1848-1907) Á Rebours, a signature book of the period, appeared traditionally in yellow covers. France was associated with the sensuality and lack of inhibitions, exactly the daring and outrageousness that the publishers were trying to speak to.

Arguably six writers whose work is still read today, published in The Yellow Book: Max Beerbohm (1872-1954), Henry James (1843-1916), Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), John Buchan (1875-1940), George Gissing (1857-1903), and W.B. Yeats (1865-1939). Here is a James story, which appeared in Volume VI.

Other Talents of the Day

Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde was an illustration of the Victorian split between conscience and libidinousness.

Note the small, elegant design of this contemporary edition. The 1890s was the age of the book as an art object.

The books in this exhibition are from the library of Professor Roger Lathbury who teaches in George Mason University's Department of English. The University Libraries is grateful for his generosity in allowing them to be exhibited here.