Gaston BACHELARD

First edition on ordinary paper, with only 25 copies printed on pur fil as deluxe copies.
Spine slightly sunned.
Precious autograph presentation signed by Gaston Bachelard to André Rolland de Renéville: "A monsieur Rolland de Renéville. En témoignage de vive estime et en très cordial hommage. Bachelard".
Provenance: library of André Rolland de Renéville.

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on Lafuma pure white laid paper, the only deluxe copies.
Half-shagreen red binding, spine with four raised bands decorated with gilt fleuron, rubbing to spine, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns, front cover preserved, speckled top edge, contemporary binding.
Study by Gaston Bachelard on the work of Jean Cavaillès.
Philosopher and epistemologist, Jean Cavaillès was one of the principal military leaders of the internal Resistance. Companion of the Liberation and co-founder of the Libération resistance movement, he distanced himself from it and created, at the instigation of Colonel Passy in April 1942, the espionage and sabotage network Cohors, while continuing to teach at the Sorbonne. Arrested several times, detained in a camp then tortured during his third and fourth detentions, in Paris, he gave up no names.
He was shot at Arras on April 4, 1944.

First edition, one of the review copies service.
Small freckles margiales without gravity in foot of the second flat, nice copy.
Autograph signed by Gaston Bachelard to Guy Dumur.

First edition on current paper.
A small discharge of adhesive paper at the bottom of the fake page and in her look.
Autograph dedication signed by Gaston Bachelard to Henri Pichette: "... the young poet ..." on the fake title page.

BACHELARD Gaston Complete autograph manuscript of his preface to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe

"The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is one of the great books about the human heart."
The handsome complete autograph manuscript signed by Gaston Bachelard of the prefeace to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe, re-published by Stock in 1944. 15 leaves in black ink with a few pencil notes by author. Numerous underlinings, deletions and corrections.
This is the second study that Gaston Bachelard devoted to Poe's work, the first - in part - being included in L'Eau et les Rêves, essai sur l'imagination de la matière [Water and Dreams, an Essay on the Imagination ofMatter], published two years before. Bachelard was Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the Sorbonne at the time and was head of the Institute of the History of Science.
Poe's enigmatic maritime tale and its abrupt and incoherent ending gave rise to a number of theories of interpretation, especially in France (including from Marie Bonaparte, Léon Lemonnier, Jorge Luis Borges, and Jean Ricardou). Arthur Gordon Pym's Antarctic odyssey explores the dark relationship between Man and the cosmos, "the drama of Man confronted with the world" as Bachelard says. Bachelard's psychoanalytical approach is an introduction to the text and invites the reader to attempt a "double reading ", already tried by some (including Marie Bonaparte in her Freudian analysis of the text) which tries to uncover the hidden psychological depths of this adventure novel.
Bachelard highlights in his preface the primeval importance of the dream and the imagination as the primary force of the human spirit, maintaining that the writer's imagination was inspired more by dreams than real-world experience. In this sense, Poe is, according to him, one of "those all too rare writers who have worked their way to the limit of dreams and objective thought." The writer reveals, through the shipwrecks suffered by the sailor Pym, the pre-existence of a "dramatic dream" that would have served as inspiration. Pym's sojourn in the hold of a whaling ship, the Grampus, also comes back to an idea of a "psychological labyrinth ". Bachelard undertakes a complete and benevolent re-reading of the text through a particular prism, which he calls "dream criticism ", as opposed to literary.
The author also mentions a number of theorists on the work, and addresses a marginal note to his publisher: "I'll give the page numbers according to the set text. The references I've made are to the Calmann Lévy edition". The references to Poe's text are thus written in pencil, as well as some afterthoughts in the text.
A unique witness to the birth of a great text of the "new literary spirit" of Bachelard.

first edition, one of the review copies service.
Autograph signed by Gaston Bachelard to Pierre Dumayet.
spine slightly passed as usual, a small spot without gravity on the first board.

New edition for which it was not drawn from great papers.
Signed autograph Gaston Bachelard Xavier Regnauld: "... the daydreams of a philosopher champenois ..."

First edition on ordinary paper.
Autograph inscription from Gaston Bachelard to the Professeur Georges Blin.
Spine sunned, three small clear dampstain in margin e of upper cover.

First edition on ordinary paper.
Handsome autograph inscription from Gaston Bachelard : "A Raymond Queneau avec mes souhaits d'un jonastique bonheur."
Spine sunned with two small and clear dampstains to foot.

First edition of which there were no large paper copies.
A very good copy.

First edition, an advance (service de presse) copy.
Autograph inscription from Gaston Bachelard.
Spine faded, marginal spot to lower cover, otherwise a good copy retaining its advertising band.

New edition.
Autograph inscription from Gaston Bachelard.
Spine slightly faded as usual, two small angular lacks to upper cover.

First edition for which there were no large paper copies.
A rare and good copy.