Aubrey Beardsley Library
The AB Library is a collection of digitised primary sources and open access scholarship dedicated to Aubrey Beardsley. At the time when access to physical collections is more restricted than ever, this resource aims to help the artist’s enthusiasts navigate the labyrinth of online Beardsleyana.
Primary sources contain links to the first editions of Beardsley’s visual and literary works. Secondary sources include books ( In addition to textual material, it contains links to recorded lectures, documentaries, podcasts, and films addressing the artist’s work, reception, and evolving afterlives. The items in each category are arranged in ascending chronological order.
Primary sources
Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, ed. by John Rhys, 2 vols (London: J. M. Dent, 1893), vol. i <link>
Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, ed. by John Rhys, 2 vols (London: Dent, 1894), vol. ii <link>
Samuel Foote and Theodore Edward Hook, Bon-Mots of Samuel Foote and Theodore Hook, ed. by Walter Jerrold (London: J. M. Dent, 1894) <link>
Sydney Smith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Bon-Mots of Sydney Smith and R. Brinsley Sheridan, ed. by Walter Jerrold (London: J. M. Dent, 1893) <link>
Oscar Wilde, Salome: A Tragedy in One Act (London: John Lane, 1894) <link>
Lucian’s True History, trans. by Francis Hickes (London: Privately printed, 1894) <link>
William Butler Yeats, The Land of Heart’s Desire (Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1894) <link>
Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan (London: John Lane, 1894) <link>
The Yellow Book: Volume 1, ed. by Aubrey Beardsley and Henry Harland (London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1894) <link> <scholarly intro>
The Yellow Book: Volume 2, ed. by Aubrey Beardsley and Henry Harland (London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1894) <link> <scholarly intro>
The Yellow Book: Volume 3, ed. by Aubrey Beardsley and Henry Harland (London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1894) <link> <scholarly intro>
The Yellow Book: Volume 4, ed. by Aubrey Beardsley and Henry Harland (London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1895) <link> <scholarly intro>
John Davidson, Plays (London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1894) <link>
Grant Allen, The British Barbarians: A Hill-Top Novel (London: John Lane, 1895) <link>
Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock: An Heroi-Comical Poem in Five Cantos (London: Smithers, 1896) <link>
Walt Ruding, An Evil Motherhood, an Impressionist Novel (London: Elkin Mathews, 1896) <link>
The Savoy: Issues 1-2 (London: Smithers, 1896) <link>
The Savoy: Issues 3-5 (London: Smithers, 1896) <link>
The Savoy: Issues 6-8 (London: Smithers, 1896) <link>
Ernest Dowson, The Pierrot of the Minute: A Dramatic Phantasy in One Act (London: Smithers, 1897) <link>
Ben Ionson: His Volpone: Or, The Foxe. A New Edition. With a Critical Essay on the Author by Vincent O’Sullivan and a Frontispiece, Five Initial Letters, and a Cover Design Illustrative and Decorative by Aubrey Beardsley. With a Eulogy on the Artist by Robert Ross (London: Smithers, 1898) <link>
The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley (London: John Lane, 1899) <link>
A Second Book of Fifty Drawings (London: Smithers, 1899) <link>
Aubrey Beardsley, Under the Hill, and Other Essays in Prose and Verse (London: John Lane, 1904) <link>
Last Letters of Aubrey Beardsley, ed. by John Gray (New York: Longmans, Green, 1904) <link>
Aubrey Beardsley, The Story of Venus and Tannhäuser: A Romantic Novel (London: [Smithers], 1907) <link>
The Later Work of Aubrey Beardsley, 3rd edn (London: John Lane, 1920) <link>
The Uncollected Work of Aubrey Beardsley (London: John Lane, 1925) <link>
Secondary sources
Contemporary reviews of The Yellow Book, 1894 <link>
Promotional materials for The Savoy (London: Smithers, 1895–96) <link>
Contemporary reviews of The Savoy, 1896 <link>
Books
Arthur Symons, Aubrey Beardsley (London: At the Sign of the Unicorn, 1898) <link>
A. E. Gallatin, List of Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley (New York: M.F. Mansfield & A. Wessels, 1900) <link>
Oscar Wilde, Salome, Tragoedie in einem Akt, trans. by Hedwig Lachmann (Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1900) <link>
A. E. Gallatin, Aubrey Beardsley as a Designer of Book-Plates (London: E. Mathews, 1902) <link>
John Lane, Aubrey Beardsley and The Yellow Book (London: J. Lane, 1903) <link>
A. E. Gallatin, ‘Aubrey Beardsley: Man of Letters. Notes on Three Hitherto Unpublished Drawings by Beardsley’, in Whistler’s Art Dicta and Other Essays (Boston: Charles E. Goodspeed, 1904), pp. 10–31 <link>
Aubrey Beardsley, Unter Dem Hügel: Eine Romantische Novelle [Under the Hill: a romantic novel] (Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1905) <link>
Aubrey Beardsley, Sous la colline et d’autres essais en prose et en vers: précédé d’une préface par Jacques-E. Blanche, trans. by A.-H. Cornette (Paris, 1908) <link>
Robert Ross, Aubrey Beardsley (London: John Lane, 1909) <link>
Oscar Wilde, Salome: tragedia w jednym akcie, trans. by Leon Choromański (Warszawa: Ferdynand Hoesick, 1914) <link>
The Poems of Ernest Dowson: with a Memoir by Arthur Symons; 4 illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley and a portrait by William Rothenstein (London: John Lane, 1915) <link>
Jacques-Émile Blanche, Propos de peintre, première série: de David à Degas. Ingres, David, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Whistler, Fantin-Latour, Ricard, Conder, Beardsley, etc. (Paris: Émile-Paul Frères, 1919) <link>
Fifty Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley, Selected from the Collection Owned by Mr. H.S. Nichols (New York: New York, H. S. Nichols, 1920) <link>
The John Lane Collection of Original Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley Sold by Order of Mrs. John Lane (New York: Anderson Galleries, 1926) <link>
B. J. Elliott, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’s Images of New Women in the Yellow Book’, Doctoral Thesis, University of London. (unpublished PhD, University of London, 1985) <link>
Mark Samuels Lasner, A Selective Checklist of the Published Work of Aubrey Beardsley (Boston: Thomas G. Boss Fine Books, 1995): preliminary pages <link>; searchable checklist <link>
In Black and White: The Literary Remains of Aubrey Beardsley, ed. by Stephen Calloway and David Colvin (London: Cypher, 1998) <link>
Susan Owens, ‘Aubrey Beardsley, Salome and Satire’ (unpublished PhD, University of London, 2003) <link>
Articles and chapters
Joseph Pennell, ‘A New Illustrator: Aubrey Beardsley’, Studio, I (1893), 14–19 <link>
‘New Publications’, Studio, II (1894), 196-98 <link>
Max Beerbohm, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’, Idler, 13 May 1898, pp. 538-46 <link>
G. W. [Gleeson White], ‘Aubrey Beardsley. In Memoriam’, Studio, 13:62 (1898), 252–263 <link>
Franz Blei, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’, Pan, V (1899–1900), 256–270 <link>
A. de Riquer, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’, Joventut, 15 February 1900, pp. 6–11 <link>
Mek Kollʹ [D. S. MacColl], ‘Obri Berdslei’, Mir iskusstva, 3.7–8 (1900), 74–84; 3.9–10 (1900), 97–120 <link>
Emil Hannover, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’, Kunst und Künstler, I (1902–03), 418–25 <link>
Obri Berdslei, ‘Pod Kholmom’ [Under the Hill], Vesy, 11 (1905), 30–49 <link>
Elemér Czakó, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’, Magyar Iparművészet, 10.3 (1907), 138–44 <link>
George Charles Williamson, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’, Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: The Encyclopedia Press, 1913), Wikisource <link>
Holbrook Jackson, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’, in The Eighteen Nineties: A Review of Art and Ideas at the Close of the Nineteenth Century (London: G. Richards, 1913), pp. 109–25 <link>
Martin Birnbaum, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’, in Introductions: Painters, Sculptors and Graphic Artists (New York: F. Sherman, 1919), pp. 3–14 <link>
‘A Catalogue of the Gallatin Beardsley Collection’, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, 12.2 (1951), 67–82 <link>
R. A. Walker, ‘Letters of Aubrey Beardsley’, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, 16.3 (1955), 111–44 <link>
Matthew Sturgis, ‘The Death of Aubrey Beardsley’, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, 60.1 (1998), 61–82 <link>
Caroline de Westenholz, ‘Beardsley at Menton’, in The Death of Pierrot. A Beardsley Miscellany, ed. by Steven Halliwell and Matthew Sturgis (London, 1998), pp. 9–16 <link>
Catherine Delyfer, ‘Les monstres d’Aubrey Beardsley et le “grotesque darwinien ”’, Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens, 77 Printemps, 2013 <link>
Linda Gertner Zatlin, ‘Aubrey Beardsley and Stephane Mallarme: Pictures for a Poem’, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, 76.3 (2015), 457–75 <link>
Simon Wilson, ‘Arthur Symons, “Aubrey Beardsley: A Memorial Poem”’, Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, 1 (2018), 95-96 <link>
Nicole Fluhr, ‘“Queer Reverence”: Aubrey Beardsley’s Venus and Tannhäuser’, Cahiers Victoriens et Édouardiens, 90, 2019 <link>
Sasha Dovzhyk, ‘The Queer Little Grove: The Adoption of Aubrey Beardsley by Mikhail Kuzmin’, BRANCH: Britain, Representation, and Nineteenth-Century History, 2020 <link>
Gregorie Mackie, ‘Aubrey Beardsley, H. S. Nichols, and the Decadent Archive’, Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, 3.1 (2020), 49–74 <link>
Juliana F. Duque, ‘Spaces in Time: The Influence of Aubrey Beardsley on Psychedelic Graphic Design’, H-ART. Revista de Historia, Teoría y Crítica de Arte, 2019 <link>
Sasha Dovzhyk, ‘Aubrey Beardsley in the Russian “World of Art”’, British Art Studies, 18 (2020) <link>
Blogs
‘The Aubrey Beardsley Influence (1967)’, Sweet Jane Blog, 2012 <link>
Carolyn Burdett, ‘Aestheticism and Decadence’, The British Library (The British Library, 2014) <link>
John Stokes, ‘Salomé: Symbolism, Decadence and Censorship’, The British Library, 2014 <link>
Linda Gertner Zatlin, ‘Aubrey Beardsley’s Feminism’, Yale University Press Blog, 2016 <link>
Linda Gertner Zatlin, ‘Aubrey Beardsley, Oscar Wilde and Salome’, Yale University Press Blog, 2016 <link>
Bob Davenport, ‘Mabel Beardsley: Actress and “her brother’s sister”‘, Studied Monuments, 2016 <link>
Maria Popova, ‘How Aubrey Beardsley’s Visionary Illustrations for Oscar Wilde’s “Salome” Subverted Victorian Gender Norms and Revolutionized the Graphic Arts’, Brain Pickings, 2016 <link>
Sasha Dovzhyk, ‘The “Artist Maks”: The Ukrainian Disciple of Aubrey Beardsley – European Studies Blog’, British Library European Studies, 2018 <link>
Simon Wilson, ‘Aubrey Beardsley: A Lifetime of Art in a Five Year Career’, Royal Academy, 2020 <link>
‘Aubrey Beardsley’s Fashion’, Documenting Fashion: A Dress History Blog, The Courtauld, 21 April 2020 <link>
Marie Daouda, The Anti-Salomé, The Rimbaud & Verlaine blog, 25 August 2020 <link>
Moving pictures
Salome (1923), dir. by Alla Nazimova <link>
After Beardsley, a short animation film by Chris James (1982): part 1, part 2, part 3
Beardsley and His Work, a BBC documentary featuring Brian Reade and Brigid Brophy (1982): part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Emma Sutton, Aubrey Beardsley and British Wagnerism in the 1890s, Pushkin Museum, Moscow (2014) <link>
Duologue Masks and Phases read by Beardsley’s biographer Matthew Sturgis with Andrew Martin as Vyvyan at The Eve of St Aubrey: Re-Collecting Beardsley (2018) <link>
Simon Wilson, Aubrey Beardsley, Oscar Wilde, Salome & Censorship, Heath Robinson Museum, 2019 <link>
Five Letters from Aubrey Beardsley set to music by Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, 2019 <link>
Guide to the Exhibition Aubrey Beardsley, Tate Britain, 2020 <link>
Laurence Llewelyn – Bowen’s School of Flock, Aubrey and the Cult of Beardsley, 2020 <link>
Jenny Barnish Creations, Aubrey Beardsley: The Yellow Book of Chocolates, 2020 <link>
Soft Surface, Always Choose Witch (a mad and a little indecent music video), 2021 <link>
Margaret D. Stetz, Aubrey Beardsley, Down Among the Women <link>
Kate Hext, Beardsley at the Cinema <link>
Sounds
Audio recordings of papers presented at The Eve of St Aubrey: Re-Collecting Beardsley (2018) <link>:
Linda Gertner Zatlin: In Conversation, moderated by Sasha Dovzhyk <link>
Samuel Shaw, ‘“I Belong to the Beardsley Period”: Beardsley in the British Context’ <link>
Joseph Thorne, ‘Social Grotesques: Beardsley, Caricatures and the Decadent Gift Economy’ <link>
Kate Hext, ‘“I’d love to turn you on”: Aubrey Beardsley in the Swinging ’60s’ <link>
Simon Wilson, a short introduction of three pamphlets privately published on the occasion of the symposium <link>
Emma Sutton, ‘Beardsley and Faulkner’s Black and White Minstrels’ <link>
Sasha Dovzhyk, ‘Beardsley’s Russian Afterlives: Repenting Sins and Queering Desire’ <link>
Dickon Edwards, ‘Camp Continuities: Ronald Firbank’s Motorising of Beardsley’ <link>
Podcasts
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on his passion for Aubrey Beardsley, BBC 4 Great Lives (2013)<link>
Aubrey Beardsley at Tate Britain, The Artfully Podcast (2020) <listen from 22:00>
Mark Gatiss on Aubrey Beardsley, BBC 4 Front Row (2020) <listen from 11:33>
Golnoosh Nour, ‘A Peacock Is a Poem’, Queer Lit, Alphabet Radio (6 May 2020) <listen from 36:30>
Sasha Dovzhyk on Beardsley’s queer sensibility, Queer Lit, Alphabet Radio (1 July 2020) <link>
Audiobooks (The Three Musicians and Under the Hill) on Librivox <link>
Journals and resources
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century <link>
AB Blogs <link>
BRANCH: Britain, Representation, and Art History <link>
COVE Editions <link>
The Modernist Review <link>
The OScholars <link>
Speaking of Oscar: a Wildean YouTube Channel <link>
Sweet Jane Boutique (especially the 1960’s Beardsley revival) <link>
Yellow Nineties 2.0 <link>
The Victorianist <link>
Volupté: Interdisciplinary Studies of Decadence <link>
Kindred souls
Birkbeck Centre for the Nineteenth-Century Studies <link>
British Association for Modernist Studies <link>
British Association for Victorian Studies <link>
British Association of Decadence Studies <link>
Edwardian Culture Network <link>
John Andrén Collection <link>
The Oscar Wilde Society <link>
The Rimbaud and Verlaine Foundation <link>
Whistler Society <link>
