Lolita Vladimir Nabokov Olympia Press 1959 Paris Two-Volume Set (4th Printing)

Description

Published as volumes 66 and 67 in the Traveller’s Companion Series, this 1959 fourth printing represents the last Olympia Press issue before Lolita’s publication in the U.S. The books remain iconic artifacts of Paris’s postwar expatriate publishing scene, where Maurice Girodias pushed boundaries and introduced works the American market refused to touch. The seldom-seen “mosaic” wrappers—bold, lurid, unmistakably Olympia—are as much a part of literary history as Nabokov’s novel itself.

Nabokov’s Lolita hardly needs introduction, but these Paris editions carry their own mythology: banned, seized, smuggled, whispered about. Collectors prize them not just as early printings, but as physical evidence of how literature once fought its way into the world. A matching, intact two-volume set like this is increasingly uncommon, especially sourced in France (I found them in Paris).

A sharp Olympia set that hits the sweet spot for readers, collectors, and anyone building out a serious shelf of postwar literature.