Beresford Egan (1905-1984) is perhaps best known as a satirist and illustrator, whose success du scandal 'The Sink of Solitude' ( a satire of Radcliffe Halls 'Well Of Loneliness') effectively launched his London career. His work appeared in a number of de-luxe books of the nineteen-twenties and thirties including works by De Sade, Baudelaire, Pierre Louys and Aleister Crowley though Egan also maintained careers as novelist, dramatist, theatre critic and actor. 'Pollen' was his first novel.
This 1933 semi-autobiographical novel of 'deco-decadence' concerns the artist Lance Daurimer whose bohemian life brings him into contact with the recherche Anna Forster and the rich, but innocent, Marylyn Irriscourt. His relationships with these opposing characters take him from the club-land of Londons West End to the depths of Parisian Monmartre, while his soul vacillates between Luciferian ecstasy and the rites of the Holy Roman Church. The evocation of the former is the books only fantastic element.

Its stylish cynicism and polished prose will find approval from lovers of Wilde and Huysmans, whose clichés of decadence he knowingly (and lovingly) mocks. The novel also has a more caustic edge, satirizing of vacuous 'smart set' of the 'twenties and attacking the hypocracy of establishment morals.

Egans illustrations are integral to the work and, as in the original edition, have been separately printed for maximum quality and inserted, by hand, at the appropriate places within the text.
The new edition also adds an end piece illustration unused in the original, and the transcript of a previously unpublished Egan lecture 'Black and White Art: What Is it?' given in 1933.

The volume is further enhanced by an introduction by Egans friend and biographer Adrian Woodhouse, in which he reveals the story behind the production of the original edition and exposes the autobiographical elements within the text.

An overview of Egans life and work by John Hirschhorn-Smith, illustrated with many previously unseen images, is HERE.

Contents:

• 'Pollen' - An Introduction - Adrian Woodhouse

• 'Pollen' - Beresford Egan


• 'Black and White Art: What Is It?' - Beresford Egan [Previously unpublished]

Offset printed and blocked on the front cover.
Full page illustrations seperately printed inserted by hand into the book during production.
Silk ribbon marker.