All issues of the anti-Semitic weekly "Psst!" - Paris 1898-1899

All issues of the anti-Semitic weekly "Psst!" - Paris 1898-1899

Volume incorporating all issues of the anti-Semitic, anti-Dreyfus weekly Psst...! Published by Librairie Plon, Paris, February 1898 to September 1899. First and second years, all 85 consecutive issues (no additional issues were printed). French.

"Psst...!" - an illustrated magazine founded by Jean-Louis Forain and Caran d'Ach (pen name of Emmanuel Poiré). A French weekly that regularly published anti-Semitic caricatures at the height of the Dreyfus affair against Dreyfus and his supporters (many caricatures mocking Émile Zola) and condemning the Jews. Published in a fixed format of four full pages of venomous anti-Semitic illustrations with an unambiguous message against Dreyfus and his supporters. The various issues feature hundreds of anti-Semitic illustrations by Forain and Caran d'Ach. These illustrations are considered the most fierce anti-Semitic publications released during the Dreyfus affair. This newspaper did not present any articles at all, and its content was limited to illustrations only and captions accompanying the illustrations. The newspaper was founded for one purpose - to strengthen Dreyfus's guilt and defend the army's honor. The newspaper's main thesis was the claim that the Jews, Émile Zola and Germany conspired together to demand a retrial, for that purpose the caricature appearing on the cover of the first issue already depicts a Jewish banker with stereotypical features shouting in a heavy German accent "Ch'accuse" playing on "J'Accuse" as he drops his letter into the mailbox to the President. (Similarly on the title page of issue no. 12 an illustration of Émile Zola waving a newspaper bearing the title "I accuse" opposite a German soldier) The newspaper ridiculed many of Dreyfus's supporters including Zola, Joseph Reinach, Scheurer-Kestner, Brisson and Picquart. The last issue was published on September 16, 1899, a week after Dreyfus was convicted again at the Rennes trial, because at that time Forain believed the newspaper had achieved its purpose.

In response to Psst...!, Dreyfus's supporters created their own competing satirical weekly called Le Sifflet which began publication on February 17, 1898, questioning the credibility of many Dreyfus opponents including Ésterhazy, Du Paty de Clam, Cavaignac, Rochefort and Drumont. Le Sifflet ceased publication on June 16, 1899 after seventy-two issues, two weeks after the Court of Cassation decided by majority vote to retry Dreyfus, and three days after all charges against Lieutenant Colonel Picquart were dropped. The two weeklies used grotesque visual imagery for propaganda purposes, creating a pictorial war of words between the two camps.

85 bound issues, 40 cm. Light stains on some issues. Hardcover coated with marble paper, leather spine with gilt lettering. Overall good - very good condition.