Bibliography | DeCasseres – Union Of Egoists

What follows is a bibliography of a majority of books and booklets written by DeCasseres. His full output is much greater, and more is detailed at benjamindecasseres.com

The Shadow-Eater (1915)

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Dedication: Carlo De Fornaro
Illustrated by Marius De Zayas (frontispiece portrait)
Albert and Charles Boni, 1915, New York
59 pages, 5.25″×7.75″
Advertised price $1.00

UoE Notes:
The first printing of the first book by Benjamin DeCasseres. It contains 46 poems

Contained within is a note:

OF THIS FIRST EDITION OF SIX-HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES OF “THE SHADOW-EATER” BY BENJAMIN DE CASSERES ONE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES HAVE BEEN PRINTED ON TUSCANY HAND MADE PAPER AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR

Photos of one example of the signed edition has been sent for examination, and it contains a frontispiece portrait by Marius De Zayas (used in the later 1923 edition as well). Unsigned editions do not seem to contain frontispiece portrait.

The Shadow-Eater (1917)

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Dedication: Carlo De Fornaro
Wilmarth Publishing Company, 1917, New York
59 pages, 5.25″×7.75″

UoE Notes:
This second printing contains the same note as the 1915 edition that there is a limited run of 150 copies being signed and printed on handmade paper. Of the two examples of this edition I have seen, one is signed, but both are on the same paper that is watermarked with a letter D inside a diamond and the words “Imperial Laid” underneath. The 1917 appears the same on the outside, but lacks the title on a pastedown on the spine as per the 1915 edition.

Curious about “Wilmarth Publishing Company”, I could only find two other titles attributed to them:

Nadine Narska by Mahrah de Meyer (Baroness de Meyer) (1916)
Life Sings a Song: Poems by Samuel Hoffenstein (1916)

The Chameleon, Being A Book Of My Selves (1922)

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Dedication: “To Bio”
Cover art/Design: unknown
Typography/Printing: The Ullman Press, Inc. NYC
Lieber & Lewis, 1922, New York
221 pages, 5×7.5″

UoE Notes:
The first collection of essays published, mostly from magazines and newspapers. A note in the front matter reads:

These essays have appeared (1903-1917) in the New York Sun, the Philistine, Mind, Reedy’s Mirror, the Critic, Liberty, Moods and Wiltshire’s Magazine. Thanks are hereby extended for permission to reprint them.

The white ink on the spine appears to frequently be mostly lost on copies seen for sale, and my own copies. I have not seen an example with dustjacket in person.

The Shadow-Eater (1923)

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Preface: Don Marquis
Dedication: Carlo De Fornaro
Illustration: Marius de Zayus (frontispiece portrait), Wallace Smith
Cover art: Wallace Smith
Printing: Vail-Ballou, Binghampton and New York
American Library Service, 1923, New York
61 pages, W×H”

UoE Notes:
A new edition of DeCasseres first book, with extras, but also of note it’s missing a poem titled “Love the Destroyer.” The last page notes that the poems were written between 1902-1906.

James Gibbons Huneker (1925)

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Foreword: Benjamin DeCasseres
Appendix material: Joseph Lawren
Joseph Lawren, 1925, New York
62 pages, 6.5×9.75″

UoE Notes:
The first half of this book, to page 40, is comprised of a five part essay by Ben DeCasseres (in fairly large type), followed by the first bibliography of Huneker’s writing, compiled by Joseph Lawren.

The book begins with the Foreword:

THE first two of these papers were I published in the lifetime of James Gibbons Huneker. I have been puzzled in going over these papers about the past and present tenses. Huneker had such a vital, enveloping, atmospheric personality that to all who knew him he persists today as a living entity. It is a psychic mystery. It is hard for me to speak of him in the past tense, so in some cases I have left the present tense stand. I shall always think of “Jim” in the Eternal Present Tense.

and then:

Thanks are extended to the New York Times, Musical America and The Nation for permission to reprint these articles.

Mirrors of New York (1925)

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Dedication: Tom Geraghty
Joseph Lawren, 1925, New York
221 pages, 6.25×9.25″

UoE Notes:
A collection of 25 essays about New York. All of these essays were reprinted in New York is Hell (2016).

Forty Immortals (1926)

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Dedication: Don Marquis
Joseph Lawren/Seven Arts, 1926, New York
372 pages, 6.25×9″
Cover price $3.50

UoE Notes:
Forty Immortals is a collection of biographical sketches of men who have greatly influenced DeCasseres. Nietzsche, Spinoza, Saltus, Thoreau, D’Annunzio, Baudelaire, Whitman, LeBon, Poe, Stirner and more.
One of the quotes featured prominently in the front matter is “Truth exists–only in your head.–Max Stirner.”

Forty Immortals was published by Joseph Lawren, who had just published a number of other titles of Ben’s, and a collection of poetry by his late brother Walter.

But at some point, Seven Arts publishing took over the book and they pasted their own name on the title page over the Joseph Lawrens’ name. The blue cover pictured is from an example where the dustjacket was printed “Seven Arts,” it had a title page paste-over, but the spine on he book itself was still marked “Joseph Lawren.” There are, however, copies with a title page paste-over but it is bound in red boards with “Seven Arts” on the spine.

Back Cover/Inside Flap Copy:
The back cover is mostly just pull quotes in praise of DeCasseres.

Anathema! (1928)

Litanies of Negation
by Benjamin DeCasseres
Foreword: Eugene O’Neill
Dedication: Bio
Design: George W. Jones
Printing: The Stratford Press
Typesetting: S.A. Jacobs
Gotham Book Mart, 1928, New York
45 pages, W×H”

UoE Notes:
A total of 1250 are signed and numbered, and unknown number are signed and marked “Presentation” instead of numbered.

Designed by George W. Jones, set in Granjon Old Face type and printed at The Stratford Press on Navarre paper bound in Fabriano. Untrimmed foreedge.

The Superman In America

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Introduction: [Praesent Libero] Foreword: [Augue Semper] Afterword: [Arcu Eget] Dedication: [Novus Emble] Illustration: [Consectetur Adipiscing] Editor: [Luctus Non] Cover design: [Mauris Massa] Cover art: [Duis Sagittis] [Publisher], [Year], [City/Country] XX pages, W×H”
Cover price $XX.XX

UoE Notes:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet. Duis sagittis ipsum. Praesent mauris. Fusce nec tellus sed augue semper porta. Mauris massa. Vestibulum lacinia arcu eget nulla. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Curabitur sodales ligula in libero.

Back Cover/Inside Flap Copy:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet. Duis sagittis ipsum. Praesent mauris. Fusce nec tellus sed augue semper porta. Mauris massa. Vestibulum lacinia arcu eget nulla.

Mencken and Shaw (1930)

The Anatomy of America’s Voltaire and England’s Other John Bull
by Benjamin DeCasseres
Printing: The Stratford Press
Silas Newton, 1930, [City/Country] 146 pages, W×H”
Cover price $XX.XX

UoE Notes:

Benjamin DeCasseres has found his Santa Claus. Mr. Silas Newton is founding a publishing house with the express purpose of bringing out his complete writings. First will come “Mancken and Shaw: The Anatomy of America’s Voltaire and England’s Other John Bull”. G. B. S. will probably receive with composure the news that his brain is “a half-inch layer of champagne poured over a bucket of Methodist near-beer”.

–The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 4th, 1930

The Love Letters Of A Living Poet

Spinoza (1932)

Liberator of God and Man, 1632-1932
by Benjamin DeCasseres
Introduction: [Praesent Libero] Foreword: [Augue Semper] Afterword: [Arcu Eget] Dedication: Benjamin Sonnenberg
Illustration: [Consectetur Adipiscing] Editor: [Luctus Non] Design: T. Spencer Hutson
Printer: J.J.Little & Ives Company
E. Wickham Sweetland, 1932, New York
145 pages, W×H”
Cover price $XX.XX

When Huck Finn Went Highbrow

The Muse Of Lies

The Works of Benjamin DeCasseres (3 volumes)

by Benjamin DeCasseres
[Publisher], [Year], [City/Country] Three Volumes
XX pages, 5×8″

UoE Notes:

In 1936 Benjamin DeCasseres took it upon himself to try to publish as much of his own work as he could. He paid for the printing himself through “Blackstone Publishers.” In the following three years he published 23 booklets:

Exhibitionism: A New Theory of Evolution (1936, 32 pages)
The Individual Against Moloch (1936)
Black Suns (1936, 68 pages)
The Eternal Return (1936)
The Eighth Heaven (1936)
DeGaultier & LaRochefoucauld (1936, XX pages)
The Elect and the Damned (1936)
Saint Tantalus (1936)
The Adventures of an Exile (1936, 56 pages)
I Dance With Nietzsche (1936)
Broken Images (1936)
Raiders of the Absolute (1937)
Fantasia Impromptu (Part 1) (1937, 52 pages)
Spinoza Against the Rabbis (1937, 58 pages)
Fantasia Impromptu (Part 2) (1937, 46 pages)
Chiron the Centaur (1937, 59 pages)
Fantasia Impromptu (Part 3) (1937, XX pages)
The Last Supper (advertised as “Mirth-‘o-God) (1937, XX pages)
Fantasia Impromptu (Part 4) (1937, 50 pages)
Sir Galahad: Knight of the Lidless Eye (1938, 64 pages)
Fantasia Impromptu (Part 5) (1938, 47 pages)
Saint Tantalus (Part 2) (1938? [undated], 60 pages)
Fantasia Impromptu (Part 6) (1938, 53 pages)

The booklets were bound into a three volume collection released at The Works of Benjamin DeCasseres. An inscription by DeCasseres claims only 25 sets were made. It was announced (see below) that there would be a total of 24 booklets in the series. There are, indeed, only 23 of the proposed 24 in the bound volumes, and I cannot find any resource that would lead me to believe any others were released.

BooletPromo — A flyer promoting the booklets (seen above), found in a copy of Book No.11, has different titles for some of the booklets, and lists “Black Suns (Poems–Part 2) as the 24th booklet.

FINIS

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Introduction and poem by Bio DeCasseres
Foreword by Benjamin DeCasseres
[No Publisher Stated], 1945, New york
20 pages, 6×8.75″

UoE Notes:
Published by his wife shortly after his death in 1945 in an unknown quantity. Bio wrote an introduction (here titled “Dedication”) and included a poem of her own titled “Twilight”. DeCasseres wrote a foreword and the rest of the pamphlet consists of four short works about “oblivion”.
Bios dedication:

In the last months of his life, the twilight time when all action recedes and life becomes luminous in silence, Benjamin DeCasseres wrote these four essays.
Alive with the poetic flavor of his word-mastery, here is illumination of the uttermost self, a book that is at once a breviary of philosophic fearlessness, a hymnal of the eternal verities.
Before his day had completely receded, “One last ecstatic glow that stains a hemisphere”, had arched itself above him and he penned the lines which have become the seal of his life’s work.

The Works of Benjamin DeCasseres (3 volumes)

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Gordon Press, 1975, New York
XX pages, W×H”
Cover price $XX.XX

UoE Notes:
These are facsimile editions of the original edition, but enlarged. Gordon Press specialized in producing small runs of obscure titles, often without consent of the copyright holders.

Anathema! Litanies of Negation

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Foreword by Eugene O’Neill
Afterword by Kevin I. Slaughter
Edited by Kevin I. Slaughter
Cover design by Kevin I. Slaughter
Half-title page Illustration by Josh Latta
Underworld Amusements, 2013, Baltimore, MD
66 pages, 6×9″

UoE Notes:
A new edition, retypeset in a similar style as the original. Featuring a new Afterword by Kevin I. Slaughter. Afterword serves to introduce readers to Benjamin DeCasseres and related how the author discovered him.
An audiobook was released at the same time as the paperback and made available through audible and for free via a URL printed in the book.
A hardback edition of 13 copies was released by Underworld Amusements in February of 2016. The hardback features the poem “Motre Seigneur” in place of the advertisements found in the paperback.
The back cover features the same basic book information as the title page.

IMP: The Poetry of Benjamin DeCasseres

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Introduction: Kevin I. Slaughter
“A Review” by Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff
Preface: Don Marquis
Illustrator: Wallace Smith
Editor: Kevin I. Slaughter
Cover design: Kevin I. Slaughter
Cover illustration: Josh Latta
Underworld Amusements, 2013, Baltimore, MD
194 pages, 6×9″
ISBN: 978-0-9830314-5-1
Cover price $14.95

UoE Notes:
Editor collected multiple collections of poetry and bits from various sources.

Back Cover/Inside Flap Copy:

Ironist, Critic, Poet, Nietzschean, Anarch. Friend of H.L. Mencken, Charles Fort and relative of Spinoza. Published in periodicals ranging from the radical anarchist Liberty, to the mainstream Life, his work is now mostly lost and forgotten save a mention every decade or so by scholars or writers who have stumbled across him.

This volume contains the known poetry of Benjamin DeCasseres (1873-1945) outside of his ANATHEMA! Litanies of Negation and a few poems included in The Sumblime Boy. 129 poems in verse and prose, collected from two published volumes (The Shadow-Eater and Black Suns) and culled from dozens of periodicals over the first half of the 20th century.

Fantasia Impromptu & FINIS

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Introduction by Kevin I. Slaughter
Edited by Kevin I. Slaughter
Cover design by Kevin I. Slaughter
Cover art by Josh McAlear
Underworld Amusements, 2016, Baltimore, MD
246 pages, 6×9″
ISBN:
Cover price $16.95

UoE Notes:
A hardback edition of 13 copies was released by Underworld Amusements in February of 2016.

Back Cover/Inside Flap Copy:
Fantasia Impromptu & FINIS constitute Benjamin DeCasseres’ (1873-1945) most private writing, but even then, they were intended for publication and posterity. The first is a diary-like collection of notes and reminiscences began in December 1925. The latter was professed to be “a summation of all my books, of my lifelong beliefs.”
Fantasia Impromptu was released as a series of booklets, six in total, that constitute his “intellectual, emotional and spiritual autobiography.” They are filled with ruminations on daily life, aphorisms, esotericisms, and appeals to future readers. It is approprately dedicated to: “The Thinkers, Poets, Satirists, Individualists, Dare-Devils, Egoists, Satanists and Godolepts of Posterity.”
FINIS is his final work, appropriately enough, and consists of three essays and a “hymn”, all previously unpublished. The one focus of all of these pieces is Oblivion. Though he states in his introduction is was not necessarily meant to be his last work, he died before it was published, and his wife Bio prepared an introduction and included a poem of dedication. FINIS was released as a booklet the year of his death and has never been reprinted before.

New York is Hell: Thinking and Drinking in the Beautiful Beast

by Benjamin DeCasseres
Introduction by Peggy Nadramia
Edited by Kevin I. Slaughter
Underworld Amusements, 2016
360 pages, 6×9″
ISBN: 978-0988553606
Cover price $18.95

UoE Notes:
A hardback edition of 33 copies was released by Underworld Amusements in December of 2016.

Back Cover/Inside Flap Copy:
Benjamin DeCasseres (1873-1945) was an Ironist, Critic, Poet, Epigrammist, Polemicist, God. He announced his candidacy for mayor of New York as a “Cubist Candidate” in 1913, vowing to “legalize human frailties,” among other fine ideas. He was a comrade of H.L. Mencken, Charles Fort, James Huneker, George Sterling, Don Marquis and is a distant relative of Spinoza. His writing was published in a wide range of periodicals from Benjamin Tucker’s radical anarchist Liberty, to the mainstream Life. He could be found in the pages of the New York Times, among other newspapers, and even on the radio.

This is a collection of his writing solely focused on New York, but mostly about booze.

Peggy Nadramia was born in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, was the editor of the award-winning horror publication GRUE Magazine, is one of the mixologists behind Cocktail Vultures, and also the current High Priestess of the Church of Satan.