The Yellow Book: an Illustrated Quarterly

London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1894-97. First edition. Cloth. Very Good. 8" by 6.5". Various. A complete collection of all thirteen volumes of the widely celebrated Victorian literary and artistic periodical 'The Yellow Book'. Each volume the first edition, first impression with book lists and/or publisher's announcements to rear, which did not appear in later impressions. Complete run with all thirteen volumes of The Yellow Book, a leading British literary quarterly magazine in the 1890s, running from 1894 to 1897, with notorious authors such as Kenneth Grahame, H. G. Wells, W. B. Yeats, and Henry James contributing some first publications. The magazine contained a variety of literary and artistic genres, and was often associated with the currents of aestheticism and decadence. Including poetry, short stories, essays, book illustrations, portraits, and reproductions of paintings. John Lane and Elkin Mathews, the founders of The Bodley Head, published this artistic and often controversial periodical. The iconic yellow cover is credited to Aubrey Beardsley, its first art editor, an allusion to illicit French fiction of the period, although Oscar Wilde notoriously dismissed it as 'not yellow at all.' Beardsley obtained works by such artists as Charles Conder, William Rothenstein, and Philip Wilson Steer among other.Volume I with fifteen illustrations. Collated, complete. With advertisements and book lists to rear. Volume II with twenty-two illustrations. Collated, complete. With advertisements and book lists to rear. Volume III with fifteen illustrations. Collated, complete. With advertisements and book lists to rear. Volume IV with seventeen illustrations. Collated, complete. With advertisements and book lists to rear. Volume V with fourteen illustrations. Collated, complete. With advertisements and book lists to rear. Volume VI with sixteen illustrations. Collated, complete. With book lists to rear.Volume VII with twenty illustrations. Collated, complete. With advertisements and book lists to rear. Volume VIII with twenty-six illustrations. Collated, complete. With advertisements and book lists to rear. Volume IX with seventeen illustrations. Collated, complete. With advertisements and book lists to rear. Volume X with thirteen illustrations. Collated, complete.With advertisements and book lists to rear.  Volume XI with twelve illustrations, including a colour plate. Collated, complete. With advertisements and book lists to rear.  Volume XII  with fourteen illustrations. Collated, complete. With publisher's book lists to rear. Volume XIII with eighteen illustrations. Collated, complete. With publisher's book lists to rear. In the original publisher's uniform full cloth bindings with designs in black. Externally very smart with minor shelf wear only, lightly bumped to head and tail of spine and extremities, back strip gently darkened. Internally, firmly bound. Light minor spotting to odd leaf, pages otherwise generally bright and clean. Very Good