Recueil de Poésies à l'usage de la jeunesse américaine…[Collection of Poems for the Use of American Youth…]
First edition of this anthology of French poetry compiled by the former French headmistress of an American boarding school, comprising 128 poems by the foremost French poets, from Malherbe to Victor Hugo, which the editor assigned to her pupils during her tenure.
Publisher’s full violet cloth, spine lightly faded, headcaps slightly frayed, upper cover blocked in gilt at centre with a swan, brown endpapers and pastedowns, hinges slightly split.
On the front free endpaper, a violet stamp bearing the name “Consuelo”. This very likely refers to Consuelo Suncin Sandoval (1901–1979), the Salvadoran artist who married Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in 1931 and was one of the muses of the Surrealist circle.
During the Second World War, after a period of separation, the beautiful and capricious Consuelo rejoined her husband in New York in 1942.
She watched over him while he was writing the story of Le Petit Prince, in which Saint-Exupéry portrayed her in the guise of the Rose.