They are called deluxe papers, limited editions, tirages de têtes or simply first editions. They were printed in small numbers on special paper and carefully preserved, from the very beginning, by the first readers and admirers of these literary geniuses. These copies are the origin of the work and its legacy.
First edition on ordinary paper.
A small nick on the spine, slightly split at the foot.
Precious signed autograph inscription from Jean Giraudoux to André Gide: "... avec gratitude..."
First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on alfa, the only grands papiers (deluxe copies) after 5 pur-fil paper.
Bound in half green morocco, paste paper boards, marbled paper endpapers, wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, contemporary binding signed Lucie Weill.
Skilful and discreet repair to the top of a joint.
Illustrated with 6 vignettes by André Derain.
Handsome inscription signed by Antonin Artaud: “à Alice & à Carlo Rim que j'aime beaucoup parce que j'aime dans la vie tout ce qui est nature, franc et sans fard et la vie d'Héliogabale aussi est franche et sans fard et dans la ligne de la grande Nature. Antonin Artaud leur ami.” (“To Alice & Carlo Rim whom I love very much because I love in life all that is nature, frank and unvarnished and the life of Elagabalus is also frank and unvarnished and in line with the great Nature. Antonin Artaud their friend.”)
First edition, one of the review copies.
Spine slightly sunned, minor marginal spots on the front cover.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Maurice de Vlaminck to his Montmartre friend Pierre Mac Orlan: "... son vieux copain..."
First edition on ordinary paper, despite a false statement of third edition.
Handsome autohgraph inscription from Marcel Proust to René Boylesve.
This copy has a chemise and slipcase (with flaps) of half kaki morocco over marbled paper boards, spine very slighlty faded with bibliophilical gilt inscriptions to the foot, lined with liht green paper.
One very pale angular dampstain Mouillure angulaire très pâleto the first leaves.
Provenance : Heilbronn's library, with his ex libris.
René Boylesve découvre l'œuvre de Marcel Proust en 1913, à l'occasion de la parution du premier volume de la Recherche. D'abord dérouté par l'écriture proustienne, il se montre bientôt dithyrambique : « Notre œuvre, à nous, est ruinée par celle-là. Nous avons travaillé en vain. Proust supprime la littérature des cinquante dernières années. » (cité par GERARD-GAILLY Émile, « Note liminaire », dans BOYLESVE René, PROUST Marcel, Quelques échanges et témoignages, 1931, p. 24). Quant à Proust, l'admiration à l'égard de son aîné évoquée dans notre envoi n'est pas feinte ; ainsi quelques mois avant sa mort louait-il les romans de Boylesve, célébrant non seulement un « art en apparence si simple et qui dit tout » mais aussi « un perfectionnement suprême de technique » (PROUST Marcel, Correspondance, t.XX et XXI, 1991, p. 332 et 778).
Les deux hommes n'étaient pas proches mais correspondirent à partir de 1917. En faisant parvenir à Boylesve un exemplaire de ses Pastiches et mélanges, Proust dut le ravir : quand il n'écrivait pas, Boylesve était bibliophile. Ainsi, à propos d'un autre de ses ouvrages, Proust eut cette délicate attention : « J'avais une hésitation en ce qui concerne votre exemplaire. D'habitude, ceux qui sont tirés pour moi sans marque d'édition, sont un peu mieux que les "originales". Cette fois-ci, le "mieux" ne m'apparaît pas ; et comme je suis incapable de distinguer le "pur fil" du reste, je ne sais pas, des deux sortes d'exemplaires, ce qui est préférable. [...] Vous seriez mille fois gentil de me dire ce que vous voulez. C'est parce que je vous sais bibliophile que vous écris à propos d'un livre de moi, chose de peu d'importance [...]. » (PROUST Marcel, op. cit., t.XXII, p. 156-157)
Long autograph letter by Stendhal, addressed to his sister Pauline, written in fine handwriting with black ink.
Address of Stendhal's father, where his sister resides, in Grenoble, with the stamp "n°51 Grande Armée." Red wax seal bearing Stendhal's coat of arms.
Several original folds, inherent to postal delivery. A paper loss due to the unsealing of the letter has been skillfully restored.
A very beautiful letter, filled with romantic passion, blending childhood nostalgia with sentimental tales, and foreshadowing The Red and the Black.
First edition, one of 12 numbered copies on Hollande, the only deluxe issue.
Complete with the folding map at the end.
Full fawn morocco binding, five raised band spine, date at foot, comb-marbled paper pastedowns framed with a rich gilt roll, comb-marbled endpapers, gilt fillet to headcap, gilt fillet to leading edges, gilt roll to headcaps, original wrappers and spine preserved, all gilt deckled edges, housed in a fawn morocco-edged slipcase. Binding signed by Semet & Plumelle.
Provenance: From the libraries of Dr André Chauveau, Lucius Wilmerding, and RBL, with their bookplates affixed.
A splendid deluxe copy of exceptional rarity.
First edition printed on alfa paper.
A small tear at the foot of one joint discreetly restored, a pleasant copy.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Philippe Soupault to René Crevel in pencil.
First edition, one of 500 numbered copies on Featherweight, the only deluxe issue.
Small loss and foxing to the headcap and upper edge, a crease and minor tears to the front cover, endpapers slightly toned without consequence.
Exceptional signed autograph presentation from Benjamin Fondane: « A Jacques Prévert cordialement. B. Fondane. Paris / 3 / 33. »
First edition on ordinary paper, issued after the destruction of the 1923 printing following a dispute between Tzara and the publisher.
Double autograph inscription, signed and dated by Tristan Tzara, first to Paul Éluard – « à Paul Éluard. Tristan Tzara. Juillet 1929 » – then, after striking through this initial dedication, to René Char in September 1934: « à René Char avec toute l'amitié grande de Tristan Tzara ». This second inscription is further embellished with a small drawing by Tzara, a hand pointing with its index finger to Char’s name.
First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on vellum, ours unnumbered, the only deluxe papers after 15 copies on Japon.
Illustrated with a frontispiece drawing by Salvador Dalí.
Precious signed autograph presentation from Paul Eluard to René Char : « Exemplaire de mon ami René Char. Paul Eluard. »
First edition, one of 20 deluxe copies on Holland paper, the only large-paper issue, reimposed in octavo format (the ordinary edition being in duodecimo).
Cf. Vicaire III, 305-306. Carteret I, 222.
Contemporary full stiff ivory vellum, smooth spine, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Fine copy.
Bibliographers mention 25 copies, which seems difficult to account for, as the limitation is clearly stated on the verso of the half-title. This procedure was customary for the author (Les Six aventures, 1857, was issued in the same dual printing).
Precious presentation copy inscribed and signed by Maxime Du Camp to the celebrated critic Jules Janin (1804–1874), who later affixed his engraved bookplate to the front endpapers.
Second edition only one month after the first edition.
Spine lightly wrinkled, small signs of folding in the margins of the boards, a light mark on the second board.
Claude Couffon, a French specialist and translator of the major Spanish-speaking writers of the second half of the 20th century, translated Chronicle of a Death Foretold a few years later.
On the last page, below the colophon, Gabriel García Márquez specified an address in Barcelona, that of his famous literary agent for Spain: “c/o Agencia Carmen Ballcells Urgel 241, Barcelona, 11.”
Rightly considered as one of the most important works op the Spanish language, the novel by García Márquez, however, had difficult beginnings after a first refusal by the avant-garde Barcelona publisher Seix Barral: “This novel will not be successful [...], this novel is useless.”
García Márquez sent it from Mexico to the Argentinian publisher Francisco Porrúa who immediately perceived the power of this unknown Colombian writer: “It wasn't a question of getting to the end to find out if the novel could be published. The publication was already decided from the first line, in the first paragraph. I simply understood what any sensible publisher would have understood: that it was an exceptional work.”
Finished printing in May 1967, Cien Años de Soledad appeared in bookshops in June with 8,000 copies selling out in a few days. The second print on 30 June will have the same success, as will the editions that follow week after week. More than half a million copies were sold in three years.
Several copies were later inscribed by Gabriel García Márquez who over the years has become one of the most famous South American writers, translated into 25 languages. However, contemporary autograph inscriptions on the first prints are extremely rare, even more so to one of his French translators who will contribute largely to his international renown.
First edition.
Half beige cloth Bradel binding, flat spine, date at foot, black shagreen title-piece skillfully restored, marbled paper boards, contemporary binding.
Inscribed by Guy de Maupassant to his friend the writer Catulle Mendès.
A fine copy, attractively bound.
Provenance: from the library of Arthur Christian with his bookplates on the front pastedown.
Autograph letter from George Sand to Gustave Flaubert dated December 21, 1867, 8 pages on two lined leaves. Published in Sand's Correspondance, XX, pp. 642-645.
From one of the finest literary correspondences of the century, this letter written on Christmas Eve 1867 is a sublime testament to the frank friendship between George Sand, the “old troubadour”, and Gustave Flaubert, christened “cul de plomb” [leaden ass] after declining his invitation to Nohant to complete L'Éducation sentimentale.
Despite their seventeen year-age gap, opposing temperaments and divergent outlooks on life, the reader is gripped by the tenderness and astonishing verve of George Sand's long confession to Flaubert. At the height of her literary fame and enjoying her theater in Nohant, Sand talks at length about politics, their separation, their conception of the writer's work, and life itself.
In this “stream-of-consciousness” letter, Sand naturally and freely sets down on paper eight pages of conversations with Flaubert who made only too rare and brief appearances in Nohant: “But how I chat with you! Do you find all this amusing? I'd like a letter to replace one of our suppers, which I too miss, and which would be so good here with you, if you weren't a cul de plomb [leaden ass] who won't let yourself be dragged along, to life for life's sake”, whereas Flaubert's motto, then busy writing L'Éducation sentimentale, was rather art for art's sake. In the end of 1867, Sand grieved the death of an “almost brother”, François Rollinat, which Sand appeased with letters to Flaubert and lively evenings at Nohant: “This is how I've been living for the last 15 days since I stopped working [...] Ah'! [...] Ah! when you're on vacation, work, logic and reason seem like strange swings.” Sand was quick to criticize him for working tirelessly in his robe, “the enemy of freedom”, while she was running up and down mountains and valleys, from Cannes to Normandy, even to Flaubert's own home, which she had visited in September. On this occasion, Sand had happily reread Salammbô, where she picked up a few lines for her latest novel, Mademoiselle Merquem.
Their literary and virile friendship, similar to Rollinat's, defied the old guard of literati who declared the existence of a “sincere affair” between man and woman utterly impossible. Sand, who has been described in turn as a lesbian, a nymphomaniac, and made famous for her resounding and varied love affairs, began a long and intense correspondence with Flaubert, for whom she was a mother and an old friend. She called herself in their letters “old troubadour” or “old horse” and no longer even considered herself a woman, but a quasi-man, recalling her youthful cross-dressing and formidable contempt for gender norms. To Flaubert had compared the female writers as Amazons denying their femininity: “To better shoot with the bow, they crushed their nipples”, Sand replied in this letter: “I don't share your idea that you have to do away with the breast to shoot with the bow. I have a completely opposite belief for my own use, which I think is good for many others, probably for the majority”. A warrior, yes, but a peaceful warrior, Sand willingly adopted the customs of a world of misogynistic intellectuals, while remaining true to herself: “I believe that the artist should live in one's nature as much as possible. To the man who loves struggle, war; to the man who loves women, love; to the old man who, like me, loves nature, travel and flowers, rocks, great landscapes, children too, family, everything that moves, everything that fights moral anemia,” she then adds. A fine evocation of her “green period”, this passage marks the time of Sand's country novels, when, mellowed by the years, she gave herself over entirely to contemplation to write François le Champi, La Mare au diable and La Petite Fadette. But her love of nature didn't stop her from conquering language over men, even though at 63 she was still “scandalizing the inscandalizable”, according to the Goncourt brothers.
Faithful to her socialist ideals, she openly criticizes Adolphe Thiers in the letter: “Étroniforme [shithead] is the sublime word that classifies this species of merdoïde [shitty] vegetation [...] Yes, you'll do well to dissect this balloon-like soul and this cobweb-like talent!” As the leader of the liberal opposition to Napoleon III, Thiers had just delivered a speech in defense of the Papal States, turning his back on Garibaldi, future father of unified Italy. Everyone in Sand's home of Nohant had had a good laugh at Flaubert's logorrhea, sent three days earlier: “Let us roar against Monsieur Thiers! Can one see a more triumphant imbecile, a more abject scoundrel, a more etroniform [shit-like] bourgeois!” he wrote. Sand echoed his sentiments: “Maurice [Sand] finds your letter so beautiful [...] He won't forget étroniforme, which charms him, étronoïde, étronifère”. Against this backdrop of intense political debates, Sand also warned Flaubert, who risked jeopardizing his novel by including his criticism of Thiers in L'Éducation sentimentale: “Unfortunately when your book arrives, [Thiers] may be over and not very dangerous, for such men leave nothing behind. But perhaps he will also be in power. You can expect anything. Then the lesson will be a good one.”
Their shared socialist and anti-clericalist opinions did not prevent them from holding widely divergent views on the essence of the novel and the work of the writer: “the artist is an instrument which everything must play before it plays others. But all this is perhaps not applicable to a mind of your kind, which has acquired a great deal and only has to digest". Flaubert's detachment, his open cynicism for his characters, like a Madame Bovary harshly judged by the narrator, differed sharply from Sand's emotional and personal relationship to writing. Flaubert's almost schizophrenic attitude readily confused her and made her fear for her sanity: “I would insist on only one point, and that is that physical being is necessary to moral being, and that I fear for you one day or another a deterioration of health that would force you to suspend your work and let it cool down.” Flaubert never betrays or reveals himself through his novels, unlike Sand, who throws herself body and soul into her writing: “I believe that art needs a palette always overflowing with soft or violent tones, depending on the subject of the painting”.
While Flaubert, hard-working and full of literary anxieties, was secluded in Croisset, Sand enjoyed her freedom at Nohant, a place of family bliss but also of egalitarian living, where she “[had] fun to the point of exhaustion”. She willingly swapped tête-à-tête sessions with the inkwell for her little theater in Nohant: “These plays last until 2 a.m. and we're crazy when we get out. We eat until 5 am. There are performances twice a week, and the rest of the time, we do stuff, and the play (which) goes on with the same characters, going through the most unheard-of adventures. The audience consists of 8 or 10 young people, my three grand-nephews and the sons of my old friends. They're passionate to the point of screaming”. Persevering, she once again urged her “leaden ass” Flaubert to come out of his voluntary confinement: “I'm sure you'd have a wonderful time too, for there's a splendid verve and carelessness in these improvisations, and the characters sculpted by Maurice seem to be alive, with a burlesque life, at once real and impossible; it's like a dream.” Two years later, Flaubert would make a sensational entrance at Nohant, and Sand would leave “aching” after days of partying. During his memorable stay at Sand's he read his Saint-Antoine aloud in its entirety and danced the cachucha dressed as a woman!
Exceptional pages of George Sand in spiritual communion with her illustrious colleague; Flaubert was one of the few to whom she spoke so freely, crudely, but tenderly, sealing in words her deep friendship with the “great artist [...] among the few who are men” (letter to Armand Barbès, 12 October 1867).
Our letter is housed in a half-black morocco folder, with marbled paper boards, facing pastedown in black lambskin felt, Plexiglas protecting the letter, black morocco-lined slipcase, marbled paper boards, signed P. Goy & C. Vilaine.
First edition with 25 full-page photographs.
Green cloth publisher's binding. Copy complete with its dust jacket, with very slight tears, and traces of wear to the margins.
Rare autograph signature of Maria Callas on the title page.
Typescript of L'Intelligence en guerre with autograph manuscript additions
1945 | 22.3 x 27.9 cm | (24) f. | 24 handwritten sheets hold with a pin & 340 leaves of typescript
340 page typescript of the work L'Intelligence en guerre by the resistant writer-journalist Louis Parrot, accompanied by manuscript notes concerning the title, half-title, preface and first bibliography pages (4 pages in total) and the index of names quoted at the end of the volume (6 pages in total). Several folds and rust marks from the metal fasteners.
The typescript includes handwrittencorrections and changes, in particular
25 fully handwritten pages, and additions in the margin on several tens of pages, featuring fully in the version published in 1945 by La Jeune Parque publishers.
First edition of this work published in Toulouse, cradle of aeronautics.
Precious and rare signed autograph inscription by Clément Ader to René Fonck, « l'As des As » of French aviation, who achieved the highest number of aerial victories during the First World War: « à monsieur René Fonck membre du Comité de Direction de l'Aéro-Club. En souvenir du 2 mars reconnaissant hommage. »
This remarkable dedication was most likely written on 2 March 1922 on the occasion of a banquet held by the Aéro-Club de France at the Palais d'Orsay, celebrating the award of the Commander's insignia of the Légion d'honneur to Clément Ader, the first Frenchman who, as early as 1890, attempted flight with his prototypes named « Éole » and « Zéphyr ». This final tribute marked the pinnacle of the career of this brilliant inventor, from whom the French army had nonetheless turned away after the unconvincing demonstration flight of his « Aquilon » at Satory in 1897.
A rare and desirable copy, enriched with an exceptional signed autograph inscription from the father of aeronautics to René Fonck, the military hero of French and Allied aviation, nicknamed « l'As des As » during the First World War with seventy-five confirmed victories to his credit.
Very rare first edition.
Beige half calf binding, spine decorated and ruled in gilt, some rubbing to the joints, dark yellow paper boards, marbled endpapers, edges speckled. Missing top spine end, rubbed joints and some scratches.
Notes about the author in ink by a former owner on the page facing the half-title page: "condamné à mort le 24 mars 1794” (executed on 24 March 1794)
Extremely rare inscribed copy signed by Anacharsis Cloots to the revolutionary Nicolas Joseph Pâris, "Pour NJ Pâris de la part de l'auteur” (For NJ Pâris from the author) Friend of Danton and Cloots, court clerk of the Paris Revolutionary Tribunal, Pâris was well known under his pseudonym which he borrowed, like his friend Cloots, from the history of the ancient Republics.
First edition of this seminal work by Anacharsis Cloots, of which the “various other writings are only detached parts” (Léonard Gallois, Histoire des Journaux et des journalistes de la Révolution française, 1846), exceedingly rare. We have not been able to find any other inscribed copy.
Our copy is inscribed to another revolutionary, present during the great trials of the Reign of Terror. He became famous for warning Danton of Robespierre and Marat's plot against him, as told by Victor Hugo in Quatre-vingt-treize [Ninety-Three]: “It was at the time when the copying clerk, Fabricius Pâris, watched through the key-hole the proceedings of the Commitee of Public Safety; not an act of supererogation, be it observed, for it was this very Pâris who notified Danton on the night of the 31st of March 1794.”
Edition published the same year as the first. Illustrated with a portrait of the author, three folding plates, a folding map of Longwood house and two folding maps.
Some foxing.
Full black calf bindings, smooth spines with gilt romantic motifs, boards with central motif in blind, boards ruled in gilt, a small restoration to the margin of the first volume's upper board, handmade endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges, spine-ends ruled in gilt, contemporary romantic bindings.
Rare signed and inscribed copy to a veteran of the Napoleonic wars, on the title page of the first volume: "A Mr. Foucauld, ancien s. [sous] officier de la Grande Armée. Passy 19. 7bre 1840 par le Cte de Las Cases" [To Mr. Foucauld, former second officer of the French Imperial Army. Passy 19. September 1840 by Count de Las Cases]
This inscription by the famous memorialist dates from the year Napoleon's mortal remains were returned to France, a few days before the Belle Poule frigate arrived in St. Helena to collect the coffin. Las Cases inscribed this copy at a turning point in history, as the world was once again turning to the remote island where the Emperor was exiled and buried. A second resurrection was to occur with the triumphant return of the imperial coffin:
"Frozen sky, pure sun. - Oh! shines in history,
Of the mournful imperial triumph torch!
May the people forever keep you in their memory,
Beautiful day like glory,
Cold as the grave" (Le Retour de l'Empereur, Victor Hugo).
The famous compilation of memories and confidences of Napoleon in exile was considered from the beginning to be a true masterpiece which had a lasting effect on Napoleonic legacy. Inscriptions by Las Cases on his most famous work are extremely rare. Las Cases wrote these words to another faithful servant of the Empire, at a time when one of the most important events in Napoleonic history was unfolding: the long voyage of so-called “Mission des cendres”. Las Cases was to be part of this expedition and abandoned due to ill health. He was replaced by his son who had shared his captivity in St Helena and was to publish, like his father, an account of his journey with the Emperor's remains. Las Cases did, however, attend the lavish funeral ceremony at the Invalides, true to his words from the Mémorial: "The heavens blessed my efforts by allowing me to go all the way".
An exceptional copy with a rare meaningful signed autograph inscription, on the iconic work at the origin of Napoleonic mythology, handsomely set in a contemporary binding with Romantic gilt motifs.
First edition of the author's second work, one of 10 numbered copies on Holland paper, the only deluxe paper issue.
Bound in yellow half morocco with corners, spine with five raised bands, gilt date at foot, a small black spot at head of spine, floral and moiré patterned paper boards, pale green paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, gilt edges, bookplate of Gérard Pesme Baron de Saint-Genies pasted on a pastedown, binding signed by Thomas Boichot.
Half-title entirely toned.
A fine copy, handsomely bound.
First edition, very rare. "Aucun exemplaire de ce livre imprimé aux frais de la duchesse d'Orléans avant 1814 ne fut distribué de son vivant (Tourneux, Bibl. de l'hist. de Paris pendant la Révolution fr., IV, 21752)
Cf Quérard, VIII, 258. Brunet, II, 1136. Tourneux, 21572.
Some leaves browned or foxed.
Contemporary Bradel bindings in full purple paper boards imitating long-grain morocco, spines slightly faded, decorated with gilt fillets, friezes, and fleurons, gilt crowned monogram at the head of the spines, entirely uncut, headcaps slightly worn, some wear to the corners of volumes 3 and 4, bindings contemporary to the publication.
Some leaves slightly browned.
The work is a reply to Montjoie’s defamatory pamphlet, Histoire de la conjuration d'Orléans (1796), which would later be reprinted and condemned under the reign of Louis-Philippe. It was written by a controversial figure, the politician and conventionnel from Toulouse, Jacques-Marie Rouzet de Folmon (1743-1820).
Kuscinski (Dict. des conventionnels, pp. 540-541) notes that Rouzet accompanied the dowager duchess of Orléans into exile, after securing her release from the Luxembourg prison. They both returned to France in 1814, and "au dire de Mme Cavaignac, il aurait fini par l'épouser, ce qui aurait presque complètement brouillé la mère avec ses enfants. Rouzet a été enterré à Dreux dans les caveaux de la chapelle de la famille d'Orléans."
Provenance: Precious copy bound for Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, with his crowned gilt monogram at the head of the spines and the stamp of the Bibliothèque du roi, Palais Royal, on the title pages.
The endpaper of the first volume bears the handwritten note: "à l'armoire des médailles, par o[rdre] du Roi", referring to the reserve of precious, or confidential, books of the royal library.
Rare and appealing copy in contemporary boards, entirely uncut, complete with the 3 leaves of errata bound at the end.
The last two volumes are unopened.
The set is preserved in two modern slipcases of half long-grain red morocco, flat spines decorated with gilt fillets.
Rare first edition of the French translation prepared by Thomas-François Dalibard at the request of the Comte de Buffon (cf Wheeler Gift 367d. Waller 11339. DSB V, pp. 129-139).
Full mottled calf, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with double gilt compartments with floral tools, red morocco lettering-piece, gilt rolls on the caps (partly rubbed), restorations to head and tail of spine as well as to the corners of the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets on the edges, marbled edges, contemporary binding.
Some foxing, a dampstain to the upper right corner of the first endpaper.
The English first edition was published in London in 1751 under the title "Experiments and observations on electricity made at Philadelphia in America" (cf. Norman 830 for that edition).
Rare first edition of Euler's first work devoted to astronomy (cf. Houzeau and Lancaster I, 11948. Poggendorff I, 689. La Lande 422. DSB IV, 467-484.)
Illustrated with a frontispiece (printed on f. A4) and 4 engraved plates at the end of the volume.
Some minor foxing, mostly towards the end of the volume.
Modern half vellum binding, smooth unlettered spine, comb-marbled paper boards, red edges.
This work dates from the very beginning of Euler's stay in Berlin (where he had been invited by Frederick II of Prussia), a period of intense activity across several fields of science.
The work is described as a "fundamental work on calculation of orbits" in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
Jérôme De La Lande already noted in his Bibliographie astronomique (Paris, 1803): «Ce livre est le premier où l'on ait traité analytiquement les orbites des planètes et des comètes».
One of the principal works of dynamical astronomy, Euler’s equations being of capital importance.
First edition of the most significant 19th-century scientific expedition to Iceland and Greenland.
A few light spots of foxing, otherwise a very good copy.
The 8 volumes of text include:
- History of the voyage, by Joseph-Paul Gaimard and Eugène Robert: 2 volumes with a portrait.
- History of Iceland, by Xavier Marmier: 1 volume.
- Icelandic Literature, by Xavier Marmier: 1 volume.
- Travel journal, by E. Mecquet: 1 volume.
- Zoology and medicine, by Eugène Robert: 1 volume, with folding table.
- Physics, by V. Lottin: 1 volume.
The 4 atlas volumes comprise:
- Mineralogy and geology, by Eugène Robert: 1 volume. Atlas:
- Mineralogy and geology: 1 volume with 36 black plates, some printed on China paper and mounted.
- Historical: 2 volumes with 150 lithographed plates and views in black, printed on China paper and mounted.
- Zoological, medical, and geographical: 1 volume with 51 plates, 35 of which are finely hand-colored (one plate present in both states: black and colored).
Bound in modern half blond calf, flat spines richly gilt with garlands and gilt and blind-stamped fillets, gilt decorative bands at foot of spines, red and dark green morocco spine labels, marbled paper boards, bindings signed by Laurenchet.
A very rare and attractive uniformly bound complete set.
First edition of this exceptionally rare complete set of twelve dance scores, each comprising a color-printed wrapper and five leaves (title page, four numbered pages of engraved music, and one blank leaf). All covers were lithographed and hand-colored using stencil techniques by Adolphe Cathelin, whose name appears on the title pages.
The musical works are by composers Alexandre Croisez, Alexandre Artus, Eugène Dupuis, Camille Michel, Alphonse Leduc, Émile Waldteufel, Voctir-Auguste Dolmetsch, Félix Joufferoy, and Antony Lamotte.
Contemporary half green calf binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt and blind-stamped fillets and dotted lines, joints rubbed; granite-patterned paper boards framed with double gilt fillets (thick and thin), gilt monogram "C.B." at center of front board, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bumped corners, marbled edges, bookplate mounted on one pastedown. Contemporary binding.
Some foxing, mainly at the end of the volume.
A handsome and exceptionally rare period-bound collection.
First edition of this beautifully lithographed album after various artists, alternating picturesque views with architectural details. (Not listed in the Ornamentstischsammlung catalogue, Berlin.)
This splendid album contains 51 lithographed plates outside the text, our copy with two additional duplicate plates bound in.
Contemporary binding in half black morocco, smooth spine decorated with gilt typographic motifs, original black moiré paper boards with gilt title on upper cover preserved, original delivery wrappers bound in, corners rubbed, some marginal tears and wear to board edges, modern binding.
Some occasional foxing.
First edition of the French translation by Jean Dutourd, one of 86 numbered copies on pur fil, only grand papier (deluxe) copies.
Anthracite morocco binding, gilt title lenghtwise, date at the foot, black stingray boards framed in morocco, gilt decorative paper endleaves, original wrappers preserved, gilt edges, an elegant binding signed Boichot. Like most copies, two sunned spots to head and foot of spine, title-page and half-title slightly shaded due to the paper's acidity.
Rare deluxe-paper copy of one of the most influential texts of 20th-century literature, housed in an uncommon stingray binding recalling the famous fish, "bright in the sun" as Hemingway wrote.
New edition illustrated with 47 engraved and hand-colored costume plates (cf. Colas 2784).
This is a reissue, under the Metz imprint, of a portion (volume IV) of the Tableau Historique des costumes, des moeurs et des usages des principaux peuples de l'antiquité et du moyen âge, originally published in Paris and Metz between 1804 and 1809.
Rare and attractive copy preserved in its original publisher’s wrappers, with the original plain waiting cover and a printed title label affixed at the head of the spine.
Rare first edition of one of the many promotional pamphlets extolling the virtues of the celebrated Aqua mirabilis, or "eau admirable", invented by Giovanni Paolo Feminis and produced through the distillation of grape spirits with neroli oil, bergamot, lavender, and rosemary.
Unless, of course, it is one of its many imitations.
Fourth edition after the original of 1577 published in Paris by Nicolas Chesneau and the edition by Abel L'Angelier printed in 1584. It is identical to the 1612 edition by Artus Thomas d'Embry, the first to contain engravings and to offer the four final texts. It is illustrated with a large folding plan of Constantinople, a double plate captioned « Portraict de l'Armée de l'Empereur Turc rangée en Bataille », 17 plates for the prophetic tableaux, 62 full-page engravings representing the different inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire (men and women) and 27 plates of portraits of Turkish personalities. Repeated title-frontispiece. Title pages in red and black.
Contemporary full brown calf bindings, slightly dissimilar, spines with six raised bands decorated with gilt fleurons and compartments. One headcap and certain corners restored. Some worming without loss of letters to the first volume, one joint cracked at foot of volume I, last leaf of table in volume I remounted with some paper losses filled without affecting the text, otherwise a good copy.
This important collective work is composed as follows :
Volume I :
Histoire des Turcs by Chalcondyle Athénien, translated by Thomas Artus and Blaise de Vigenère
Volume II :
continuation and end of l'Histoire des Turcs by François-Eudes Mezeray
Histoire générale du Serrail by Michel Baudier
Les Annales des Sultans
Plusieurs descriptions des accoustremens des Turcs
Tableaux prophétiques des Empereurs Sévère et Léon by Artus Thomas
Illustrations de Blaise de Vigenère bourbonnois, sur l'Histoire de Chalcondile athénien
Autograph letter by Pierre-Joseph-Marie Proudhon, signed and dated 7 November 1862. 3 pages in black ink on a bifolium. Fold of the bifolium weakened, without affecting the text. Not included in the correspondence published by Lacroix in 1875.
Significant and likely unpublished letter from Proudhon to his publisher Alphonse Lebègue, whom he considers "the cause of liberty in France and independence in Belgium" in these lines.
Proudhon underscores the importance of his ideological struggle for federalism in Europe, following the controversial publication of his pamphlet La Fédération et l’unité en Italie, and a few months before his political testament Du Principe fédératif. He fiercely criticizes his famous adversary Adolphe Thiers’ Histoire du Consulat et de l’Empire. Since his years in Brussels, Proudhon had intended to write a book debunking the Napoleonic myth as promoted in Thiers' work.
The first edition, first printing, numbered in the press, with only 23 large paper copies on Hollande paper.
With a frontispiece portrait of Apollinaire by Picasso.
Discreet restorations to spine.
With a chemise of half red morocco over paper boards by Boichot, spine in six compartments, date to foot of spine, identical paper slipcase with red morocco edging.
Rare autograph inscription signed by Guillaume Apollinaire: “for Henri Ghéon whose poetry I am fond of, Guillaume Apollinaire”.
This copy also with five manuscript corrections by Apollinaire on pages 71, 77, 92, 110 and 189.
A good copy with a rare autograph inscription by the poet.
An autograph quatrain in black ink has been mounted on the verso of the frontispiece.
First edition.
Publisher's full cloth-backed pictorial boards, front board with color illustration, pictorial endpapers, a newspaper clipping photograph of the Disney couple pasted on the front pastedown. Minor lacks to the upper cover, corners slightly creased.
Exceptional incribed copy by Walt Disney on the front pastedown: "Best wishes / Walt Disney," below a portrait of him with his wife and their dog.
First edition.
Bound in full cherry red morocco, smooth spine richly gilt with romantic typographic ornaments, gilt roll tooling on the caps, boards framed with double gilt fillets and interlaced motifs with gilt corner fleurons, gilt AO monogram stamped at the center of the boards, gilt garland border on the pastedowns, moiré sky-blue silk endpapers and pastedowns, trace of a removed bookplate on one pastedown, gilt fillets on the edges, all edges gilt, contemporary binding.
The sections relating to the colonies are as follows: Martinique, pp. 199–203; Guadeloupe and dependencies, pp. 204–209; French Guiana, pp. 210–212; Bourbon, pp. 216–220; French settlements in Oceania, pp. 223–224.
Copy from the library of Antoine-Marie-Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Montpensier (1824–1890), youngest son of Louis-Philippe, with his gilt AO monogram stamped at the center of the boards. OHR 2590 (tool not listed).
A very handsome copy, finely bound in a period romantic binding with the Duke of Montpensier's monogram.
First edition, illustrated with 6 folding plates at the end of the volume (cf. Polak 5375).
Contemporary Bradel binding in full red boards, flat spine, black shagreen label with gilt lettering, the upper cover stamped in gilt with the monogram of Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, stepson of Napoleon. Lower corners a bit rubbed. Period binding.
A few minor spots, not affecting legibility.
Only two copies listed in the CCF (BnF and École Polytechnique).
The only edition of this insightful analysis of French naval doctrine at the close of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, significantly bearing the motto on the title page: Delenda est Britannia. Charles-Louis-Victor de La Rouvraye (1783–1850) joined the navy in June 1799; he served in the Boulogne flotilla and later in the Indian Ocean, where he was taken prisoner by the British (1806–1811).
Provenance: A distinguished copy from the library of Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, stepson of Napoleon, then Duke of Leuchtenberg, bearing his gilt cipher and that of his wife Augusta Amélie of Bavaria.
Later owned by a member of the Montboissier de Canilliac family, with an armorial bookplate mounted on the pastedown, most likely that of Charles de Montboissier-Beaufort-Canilliac (1753–1836), maritime prefect of Cherbourg from 1816 to 1826.
Highly interesting collection attributed either to the geographer Georges-Louis Le Rouge (according to Polak), or to the civil engineer La Serre (based on a manuscript version held at the Municipal Library of Le Havre).
Contemporary half Havana calf binding, smooth spine richly decorated with five gilt fillets and blind-stamped naval anchors, some minor restorations to joints, small green vellum corners, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns marbled à la cuve. Binding dating from the mid-19th century.
The work comprises 35 engraved plates depicting the plans of 42 ports.
From north to south, and west to east: 1. Antwerp. – 2. Flushing. – 3. Ostend. – 4. Dunkirk. – 5. Gravelines. – 6. Calais. – 7. Boulogne. – 8. Dieppe. – 9. Valléry-en-Caux and Fécamp. – 10. Le Havre. – 11. Le Tréport and Honfleur. – 12. Rouen. – 13. Caen. – 14. Cherbourg. – 15. Granville. – 16. Port-Malo and Saint-Servan. – 17. Brest. – 18. Lorient. – 19. Port-Louis. – 20. Nantes. – 21. Les Sables-d'Olonne. – 22. Saint-Martin-de-Ré. – 23. La Rochelle. – 24. Rochefort. – 25. Concarneau, Mont-Saint-Michel and Oléron. – 26. Bordeaux. – 27. Bayonne. – 28. Saint-Jean-de-Luz. – 29. Port-Vendres and Collioure. – 30. Cette [Sète]. – 31. Marseille. – 32. Villefranche and La Ciotat. – 33. Toulon. – 34. Antibes and Saint-Tropez. – 35. Gibraltar.
Some minor and insignificant foxing.
First edition, no deluxe copies on fine paper were issued.
Spine and rear cover slightly soiled; a clean and attractive copy internally.
Illustrations.
Valuable signed presentation copy from General Gambiez: "A monsieur J. Debu-Bridel en bien cordial hommage cet envoi de synthèse sur la libération de la Corse cette île qui nous est si chère. Château de Vincennes 26 septembre 1974."
A moving relic of the Resistance and Gaullist legacy.
A very rare first edition of 15 lithographed views in bistre tint, mounted in an accordion pleat, forming a panorama of 6.75 ft and showing the Parisian procession of the return of Napoleon's mortal remains (his "ashes" used here as a metaphor since he was not cremated). The parade started from the Arc de Triomphe to his resting place in Invalides. In the lower margin, the caption presents the different groups forming the procession: Ajaccio delegation, Paris Municipal Council, Prince of Joinville Commission of Saint-Helena...in the centre of the panorama stands the spectacular funeral car. Without mention of the publisher, this impressive document was undoubtedly printed by Aubert, famous publisher of Parisian panoramas published during the same era and also illustrated by Adrien Provost.
Publisher's half cloth black Bradel binding, goffered silk boards framed with double gilt fillets, the first with the gilt title “convoi de l'Empereur” stamped in the centre.
“In the distance is seen, in the mist and the sunlight, against the grey and russet background of the trees in the Champs-élysées, beyond the great white phantom-like statues, a kind of golden mountain slowly moving. All that can be distinguished of it as yet is a sort of luminous glistening, which makes now stars, now lightening sparkle over the whole surface of the car. A mighty roar follows this apparition. It would seem as though this car draws after it the acclamation of the whole city, as a torch draws after it its smoke. (Victor Hugo, Choses Vues, “15 décembre 1840. Funérailles de l'Empereur. Notes prises sur place.”)
First edition, no grands papiers (deluxe) copies printed.
Half brown sheepskin, spine with four raised bands framed in blind and decorated with gilt floral motifs, some rubbing to the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled paper endpapers and flyleaves, modest contemporary binding.
Rare signed and inscribed copy by Guy de Maupassant to the Baron de Vaux who inspired the character of Bel-Ami: “To Baron de Vaux / his friend / Guy de Maupassant”.
First edition of the French translation by Dominique Aubier, printed in 150 numbered copies on Rives wove paper, ours being one of 30 copies including the original print, numbered and signed by Louis Chavignier.
Our copy is one of only 10 exceptionally enriched with an additional suite on chine appliqué of the etching by Alberto Giacometti and the 14 burin engravings by Louis Chavignier.
The work is illustrated with an original etching as frontispiece by Alberto Giacometti, and 14 full-page original burin engravings by sculptor Louis Chavignier.
A handsome and rare copy.
Enclosed is the printed report, on Rives paper, of the general meeting held on 16 May 1962 by the bibliophile society Les Impénitents.
Also included is the promotional leaflet illustrated with an original burin engraving by Louis Chavignier, justified and signed by the artist, announcing the forthcoming publication of the book.
Minor, insignificant foxing affecting one leaf of the final gathering.
A rare and desirable copy.
First edition.
Official series not listed in Polak.
Full red morocco binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt Romantic arabesques, gilt roll-tooled bands at head and foot, elaborate gilt quadruple fillet frame, garland and lozenge design with gilt corner motifs on covers, gilt crowned monogram stamped in gilt at center of each board, blue moiré silk endleaves and doublures, gilt dentelle borders on doublures, gilt dotting on board edges, all edges gilt; a superb Romantic period binding.
Copy bearing the crowned monogram "FO" of Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1810–1842), eldest son of King Louis-Philippe.
A very fine copy, beautifully preserved in an outstanding period Romantic binding.
First edition, one of the rare numbered copies printed on red papier bouffant, the only deluxe issue alongside 5 copies on Hollande.
Covers slightly and marginally soiled, two initials in red ink in the upper left corner of the front cover.
Illustrated with a "portrait de crotte de bique et couillandouille par eux-mêmes" [portrait of goat-dropping and dick-and-drumstick by themselves.]
Very famous work from the Dadaist canon, written by Pansaers one year before his untimely death — the personal copy of painter Theo van Doesburg, with his autograph signature. In 1917, Doesburg had co-founded the renowned De Stijl neoplasticist movement with Piet Mondrian.
Doesbourg had joined the Dada movement in 1921, and also became one of its theorists. As Marguerite Tuijn notes, “Van Doesburg was deeply impressed by Pansaers. This artist was one of the few Belgian Dadaists, a mysterious figure and a quintessential poète maudit. In early 1920, he also arrived in Paris, where he created a small number of Dadaist works. Among others, he wrote *Le Pan-Pan au cul du nu nègre* (1919) and *Bar Nicanor* (1920). In April 1921, he left the Dada movement. He died at the end of October 1922.” (Theo van Doesburg. A New Expression of Life, Art and Technology, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 26 February – 29 May 2016, p. 72).
One of the most desirable copies of this "PAN-DADA" masterpiece, in Pansaers' own words.
First edition, printed in 500 numbered copies on Arches wove paper, adorned with 48 black illustrations within the text and 32 full-page plates after drawings by Iacovleff, printed in bistre and black. A superb album, produced under the direction of Jacques de Brunhoff with the collaboration of Sergueï Grigorievitch Elisseeff (1889–1975).
In 1917, the Russian painter Aleksander Evgenevitch Iacovleff (1887–1938) spent six months on the Japanese island of Izu Ōshima, following a stay in China. He would never return to Russia, where the Soviets seized power that same year, but emigrated to France, where he would pursue the rest of his career. He became the official painter of the Croisière Noire and later the Croisière Jaune. His fascination with the Far East inspired several illustrated albums, including Dessins et peintures d’Extrême-Orient (1920), Le Théâtre chinois (1922), and finally, the present work.
Minor losses at head and foot of spine, restored tear to head of spine, small tears and stains to lower board, final endpaper slightly and partially toned with some marginal foxing; a well-preserved copy overall.
First edition of this highly significant document on the state of Parisian hospitals at the end of Louis XVI's reign, written by Jacques Tenon (1724–1816), surgeon at the Salpêtrière, which remained an influential reference for French hospital policy through to the Third Republic.
The work is complete with its 17 folding plates (including 2 tables and 14 architectural plans and elevations of hospitals).
Some light foxing; the copy appears to have been rebound in this later binding.
Contemporary pastiche binding in half Havana sheep, flat spine with gilt fillets and the gilt cipher and arms of the Chodron de Courcel family, green paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
The composition of this text took place within the framework of a public debate on the future of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris.
In the 18th century, the Hôtel-Dieu was notoriously overcrowded, unsanitary, and prone to fires. It was used almost exclusively by the destitute who had no other care options, and it had gained a reputation as a "death trap" due to its dire conditions and high mortality rate. Two major fires had occurred in 1737 and 1772, the latter destroying much of the complex. In this context, the Baron de Breteuil, Secretary of the King’s Household, commissioned the Académie des sciences to investigate; Tenon's report was the outcome of that consultation. The text comprises five memoranda:
Unpublished political, scientific and historical archives
The complete manuscript unpublished papers of Louis, Chevalier de Sade (1753-1832), author of the Lexicon politique and cousin of the famous Marquis.
The important geopolitical, historical, and scientific archives of a learned aristocrat, a privileged witness of the end of the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, the Consulate, Empire, and Restoration.
A unique fund of research on the implementation of a constitutional monarchy.
First UK edition.
Publisher’s binding in full grey cloth, smooth spine, a fine copy complete with the illustrated dust jacket featuring a photographic portrait of the author by Yousuf Karsh.
Illustrated with maps on the endpapers and pastedowns, and 37 photographs.
Extremely rare inscribed copy signed by the last leader of the Soviet Union to a USSR émigré, the journalist Sam Yossman.
First edition of the English translation by Michael Glenny, who first came to prominence with his translation of Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita in 1967. No deluxe paper copies issued.
Publisher’s binding in full black cloth, flat spine which shows some inherent creasing due to the laminated covering.
A handsome copy, with illustrations.
Very rare inscribed copy dated 27 April 1990 and signed by Boris Yeltsin.
From the library of Sam Yossman (Sam Jones) of the BBC Russian Service.
First collected edition. No deluxe paper copies issued.
Publisher’s binding in full green cloth, smooth spines, with their dust jackets designed by Adam Rusak, showing only minor and insignificant marginal tears.
Rare presentation copy dated May 1, 1992 and signed by Solzhenitsyn to USSR émigré journalist and writer Sam Yossman, on the title page of the first volume.
First edition, numbered copies on vélin pur fil, most limited deluxe issue.
A handsome copy complete with the publisher’s announcement slip.
Rare and important presentation copy inscribed by Irène Némirovsky: "A Benjamin Crémieux hommage de l'auteur. Irène Némirovsky". Némirovsky died in Auschwitz in 1942, and Crémieux in Buchenwald in 1944.
Crémieux had published a glowing review of Némirovsky’s first novel, David Golder. Its film adaptation by Julien Duvivier was among the earliest French talkies. On this short stories collection fittingly titled Films parlés (Talking Films) Némirovsky, the émigré writer, paid homage to Crémieux, a descendant of a long-assimilated Jewish family from southern France. Two years after the publication of this collection, Irène Némirovsky’s name would appear alongside Crémieux’s in an anonymous antisemitic pamphlet entitled Voici les vrais maîtres de la France [Here are the true masters of Frabce] listing over 800 names of writers (Mémorial de la Shoah, Olivier Philipponnat).
Neither would return from the death camps: “In Geneva, in February 1945, Olga Jungelson, an envoy from the Ministry of Refugees to the Red Cross, was unable to obtain any information about her, nor about the other deported writers she had been tasked with tracing: Benjamin Crémieux, Robert Desnos, Jean Cavaillès, Maurice Halbwachs” (La vie d'Irène Némirovsky, Patrick Lienhardt, Olivier Philipponnat).
First edition (cf. Loukia Droulia 1817, Contominas 595, Blackmer 1372. Not in Atabey.)
Contemporary half blond calf, spine with five false raised bands adorned with gilt garlands, gilt tooling in compartments and blind fillets, gilt rolls at head and foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges.
Scattered foxing.
Before becoming the well-known historian and committed republican, Edgar Quinet (1803–1875) was part of the short-lived scientific commission of the Morea in 1829.
This volume records his impressions, with the second part titled De la Nature et de l'Histoire dans leurs rapports avec les Traditions Religieuses et Epiques.
Provenance: Library stamp of François Guizot on the half-title. Guizot himself, who in 1846 expelled Quinet from the Collège de France—along with his friend Michelet—for their anti-clerical stance.
Later belonged to Guizot’s descendant Robert de Witt, who signed and stamped the first flyleaf on March 11, 1875.
First edition, one of 115 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe copies aside from 35 on pure thread.
Two small spots of foxing on the front cover, a discreet crease, a handsome copy as issued.
Rare and highly sought after in deluxe paper.
First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only large paper copies along with a few hors commerce also printed on alfa.
A fine copy of this work dedicated to the memory of Simone Weil: "qui, si elle était morte assassinée, aurait consacré son dernier instant à prier pour ses bourreaux."
Partly first edition, revised and corrected, of which no deluxe copies were issued; one of the review copies.
Spine and covers slightly and marginally sunned, as usual.
Rare and valuable signed presentation inscription from Robert Antelme to Geneviève Hirsch.
"Il n'y a pas d'espèces humaines, il y a une espèce humaine. C'est parce que nous sommes des hommes comme eux que les SS seront en définitive impuissants devant nous."
["There are no human races; there is only one human race. It is precisely because we are men like them that the SS will ultimately be powerless against us."]
This seminal work on the Nazi concentration camp experience was first published in 1947. It was the third and final publication of the short-lived publishing house founded by Marguerite Duras and Robert Antelme, her husband from 1940 to 1946.
Initially unnoticed upon its discreet release — only a handful of copies were sold — the book was reissued the following year with new covers by Robert Marin. It faced the competition of numerous postwar accounts and initially struggled to find a readership. Yet, as recounted by F. Lebelley, "at a time when narratives abounded, the unique power of this work, marked by a stark sobriety, moved readers as a founding text. A writer’s book as well, which, as Duras acknowledged, ‘stepped away from literature.’ Robert Antelme would never write another. Despite the praise and accolades, L'Espèce humaine remained the singular work of a lifetime." (in Duras, ou le poids d'une plume).
Thanks to Albert Camus’s intervention, the book was reissued a decade later, in 1957, by Gallimard and finally reached a broader audience.
Since then, it has taken its place in literary history as one of the most significant works confronting the painful but essential reflection on concentration camps and the human condition. In its wake, writers such as his friend Jorge Semprun would embark on new approaches to the unspeakable task of writing about the camps.
As early as 1947, Antelme wrote in his foreword: "We had just returned, bringing with us our memory, our vivid experience, and felt a frantic desire to recount it exactly as it was. And yet, from the first days, we became aware of the gap between the language at our disposal and that experience [...] How could we resign ourselves to not trying to explain how we had come to that point? We were still there. And yet it was impossible. As soon as we began to tell it, we suffocated. To ourselves, what we had to say already seemed unimaginable."
Shortly after Gallimard’s reprint, this testimony received its most profound tribute from Maurice Blanchot:
"When man is reduced to the extreme deprivation of need, when he becomes ‘he who eats peelings,’ we see him reduced to nothing but himself, and man is revealed as he who requires nothing more than need itself to, by denying what denies him, preserve the primacy of human relation. One must add that need then changes, becomes radical in the literal sense, becomes a barren need, devoid of pleasure or content — a bare relation to bare life — and the bread one eats responds directly to the demand of need, just as need is immediately the need to live." (Maurice Blanchot, L'indestructible, in La Nrf n°112, 1962, reprinted in L'Entretien infini)
Presentation copies signed by Robert Antelme are of exceptional rarity.
First edition (a reprint was issued in 1963) of one of the two major works by Marcel Sarrazin, known as Vassal, now considered one of the leading French-speaking 'mentalists'—a modern term borrowed from English (cf. Fechner, p. 554). Only 2 copies listed in the CCF (BnF and Sainte-Geneviève).
Small stains to the lower right corner of the title page, otherwise a well-preserved copy.
Contemporary half tawny sheep binding, spine with four raised bands and gilt fleurons, minor rubbing to spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original front wrapper preserved, sprinkled edges, very slight rubbing to corners.
Illustrated with in-text figures after drawings by the author, 2 plates out of text (including a chart of 20 lamps, and a newspaper clipping).
Copy belonging to the illusionist Hervel (Benoît-Joseph Phillis, 1913–1992), with his inkstamp on the title page.
First edition, with no deluxe copies printed.
Pleasant copy, which is uncommon given the fragility of this book, often handled without care.
Inscribed and signed by Serge Gainsbourg to a recipient named Georges.
First edition of the French translation by Marie Bonaparte, one of 70 numbered copies on pur fil, the only deluxe paper copies.
Covers slightly and marginally toned, otherwise a handsome and rare copy.
The text is preceded by a translation of the short story Gradiva by Wilhelm Jensen, rendered by E. Zak and G. Sadoul.
It is followed by a psychoanalytic study of the dream and the fascination experienced by the young archaeologist Norbert Hanold for the image of a young woman sculpted in a bas-relief from the collections of the Museum of Rome.
Complete set of the first quarter published (11 April-12-19 July 1886) of the symbolist journal La Vogue, the most important literary review of the late nineteenth century, containing the first printing of Rimbaud’s Illuminations. Issues 1 - 12, published weekly, were gathered under a quarterly wrapper and offered for sale in September 1886. No deluxe copies were issued for this first quarter of the journal, which had a very limited print run. Copy as published, spine restored, upper corner of the second cover lacking.
First appearance of Rimbaud’s Illuminations in the journal that served as a refuge for the poètes maudits and introduced Walt Whitman to the French readership.
Numerous contributions, including Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, Auguste Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, Charles Morice, Paul Adam, René Ghil, Jules Laforgue, Léo d’Orfer, Stendhal, Charles Henry, Stuart Merrill (translated by Mallarmé), Édouard Dujardin, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Félix Fénéon, Paul Bourget, Walt Whitman, Teodor de Wyzewa, Fedor Dostoevsky, Charles Vignier, Jacques Casanova de Seingalt.
Presented in a grey half-morocco clamshell case, smooth spine, marble-covered paper boards, marbled endpapers; case with grey morocco border, signed by Boichot.
First edition, one of 249 numbered copies on B.F.K. de Rives, the only printing alongside 1 on Hollande and 24 on cream Renage vellum.
Illustrated with 4 original color lithographs by Rufino Tamayo.
This copy is further enriched with an additional suite of the 4 lithographs by Rufino Tamayo, usually reserved for the deluxe copies.
Printed stamps to the versos of each engraving: "Annulation d'estampille pour annulation de vente".
A rare and desirable copy.
Exceptional and Surrealist autograph inscription signed by Benjamin Péret to Toyen, inspired by the Aztec pantheon: "A Toyen la fille de Pilzintacutli, son ami Huitzilopochtli. Rectifions : son père est Xochipilli, l'autre n'esu qu'un intrus. Benjamin Péret 2 juin 1953."
Autograph letter signed by Jean Cocteau, marked with his famous star, addressed to his great love, the actor Jean Marais. One page penned in black ink on a single sheet.
Traces of folds, horizontal creases inherent to mailing, two ink spots on the blank verso not affecting the text.
A magnificent love letter from Cocteau to Marais, who together formed one of the most iconic artistic couples of the 20th century. Set against the backdrop of turmoil and the German Occupation, their unbreakable bond is embodied in this letter of the writer, filled with desperate tones.
First edition, one of 110 copies printed on Arches wove paper, deluxe issue.
Handsome copy, untrimmed, illustrated with photographs.
Fine autograph inscription signed by Pierre Clostermann: "... en cordial hommage d'un \"chasseur\" des FADL qui maniait plus facilement son avion que la dédicace. Pierre Clostermann."
First edition in French, one of 1,000 numbered copies on Annonay rag paper, the only deluxe paper copies.
Illustrated with numerous photographs. Preface by Maurice Herzog. Foreword by the Duke of Edinburgh.
Publisher’s full flexible boards binding. Lacking slipcase, spine sunned with minor tears at head and foot.
Rare and handsome autograph inscription, dated and signed by General John Hunt: "A M. Robert Moch vous témoignant notre reconnaissance de nous avoir préparé la trace jusqu'au sommet du signal de l'Iséran le 3 janvier - et pour vous exprimer nos regrets de ne pas l'avoir suivie ! John Hunt 7/1/54."
This copy is further enhanced with the handwritten signature of Edmund Hillary beneath the inscription.
First edition, one of 80 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the deluxe issue.
Fine copy.
First edition, one of 1,500 copies printed on vellum paper, this one unnumbered.
A handsome copy.
Illustrated with a frontispiece by Jean Berque.
Exceptional full-page signed presentation inscription from Abel Bonnard to Hubert Lyautey, the first Resident-General of the French Protectorate in Morocco: "A monsieur le maréchal Lyautey, qui, marmi tant d'autres illustres, a aussi sauvé la beauté du Maroc. En respectueux hommage. Abel Bonnard."
