Ecriture & Politique

First edition, one of 35 numbered copies on superior vellum, the only deluxe copies.
Spine sunned, slight tears to front wrapper.

First edition, one of 125 numbered copies on alfa paper, ours one of 25 hors commerce copies, the only deluxe copies after 15 Holland and 40 pur fil.
Spine and margins of covers skilfully restored.
Autograph inscription signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline "A Madame Marthe Pujol Bien affectueusement L.F. Céline".
Precious deluxe copy with an autograph inscription by the author.

First edition, one of 339 numbered copies on "pur-fil" paper, only deluxe copies ("grand papier") after 1 China and 39 laid "pur-fil" paper reimposed.
Very nice copy.
Half morocco binding.

First edition, mention of second edition.
Our copy is presented in a case and shirt with a green canvas back and marbled paper boards.
We enclose the cover of the catalog of the sale of the library of George and Maurice Sand in 1890 on which was pasted the descriptive sheet of our copy with its hammer price in pencil.
Exceptional autograph shipment signed by Victor Hugo to Georges Sand.
"But what did they think of each other, these two outstanding personalities of literary life in the 19th century? Because they never met these two, yet they were perfectly contemporary: Victor Hugo (1802-1885), George Sand (1804-1876).
Certainly there were the ups and downs of life: George Sand did not really publish until 1832, at a time when Victor Hugo was already aware of his glory; and then there was the exile of Victor Hugo from 1851 to 1870, but that does not explain everything!
At the beginning, they are not really part of the same coterie: Victor Hugo, Pair of France, support of Louis-Philippe on one side, George Sand socialist on the other. They do not really appreciate each other even if George Sand has a certain annoyed admiration for Victor Hugo, called grandiloquent: "the most talkative of sublime poets" while Hugo him, finds bluntly that "Sand does not know how to write"!
Then, with the coup d'etat of Napoleon III, Victor Hugo evolves politically; he quickly overflows George Sand on his left, goes into exile while George Sand accommodates internal exile. Their relationship heats up only very, very weakly: "George Sand has talent, that's all". In exile Victor Hugo publishes "Les Châtiments", a very critical work which is obviously prohibited in France. George Sand would like Victor Hugo to be less intransigent in his writings so as to be published.
The publication of "Contemplations" in 1856, much less controversial, is welcomed by George Sand and marks a new phase in their relations.
In fact, their first letter contact does not concern literary life. Nini the little girl of George Sand dies in 1855, Victor Hugo still very marked by the death of his daughter Léopoldine sympathizes; the loss of a loved one brings them together.
Here they are friends, George Sand becomes a "genius", she will often be invited to Guernsey ... without further action, their relationship will never be familiar.
Victor Hugo supports him during the publication of the Beaux Messieurs de Bois Doré (1858), but George Sand gets angry when he refuses the amnesty of 1859 while on her side she seeks to soften the situation of the proscribed.
When “Les Misérables” was published (1862) Victor Hugo sought the support of George Sand, but this support was lacking. Victor Hugo is saddened, George Sand will say that he prefers the poetry of Victor Hugo to his prose work.
On the return from exile, with the Commune, here is a new misunderstanding; Victor Hugo argues, George Sand is horrified: legalist and shocked by the violence, she condemns in extremely harsh terms this Paris Commune.
Nevertheless, from there, these two support and defend themselves as soon as one or the other is attacked.
In 1876, it was Victor Hugo who delivered the famous funeral praise of George Sand: "I mourn a dead woman, I salute an immortal ..."
The relationships of George Sand and Victor Hugo have therefore evolved a great deal during their lives. It is undoubtedly a reflection of their personal development, but perhaps their entourage, political ideas or the opinion that the other had of his own work also interfered with literary criticism; even our great personalities are under influence!
"Victor Hugo and George Sand, what if they had met?" »This is a fictional play by Danièle Gasiglia.
But maybe, as Danièle Bahiaoui suggests: “Both of them in the same room, it's one too many! »» (Blog "We in Boischaut Sud" conference by Danielle Bahiaoui, Arnaud Laster and Danielle Gasaglia)
Provenance: Maurice Sand (Venet Ferroud, Paris, February 24-March 3, 1890, lot 418), H.-Bradley Martin (engraved ex-libris), Philippe Zoummeroff. (Piasa sale, Paris, April 2, 2001, lot 112).

Signed handwritten 4-page letter written from the Sainte-Pélagie prison


Paris | Prison of Sainte-Pélagie 12 November 1851 | 13 x 20.5 cm | single sheet
«I still appear to many people as only the pure and simple negation of what is.»
Handwritten signed 4-page letter dated 12 November 1851. 124 lines in black ink.
his letter is presented in a chemise and case with paper boards decorated with abstract motifs, the spine of the chemise in green morocco, pastedowns and endpapers of green suede, slipcase signed by Thomas Boichot.
Unpublished handwritten letter on progress, signed by Pierre-Joseph-Marie Proudhon, major figure in French social thought, and «the father of anarchy» according to the president of the French Republic, Armand Fallières. he philosopher, imprisoned since 1849, develops his socialist convictions in a virulent and combative style and he condemns the absolutisms of his time.
Extraordinary declaration of philosophical, political and social faith from a marginal thinker, whose critical fortune and influence are taken from the likes of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Benjamin Tucker.
he letter is written in a fast and dense handwriting, comprising several underlined passages supporting certain philosophical concepts. The first page presents a heading from the newspaper Le Peuple in 1850, one of the four newspapers run by Proudhon under the second Republic, which resulted in him being imprisoned for «inciting hatred of the government,» «provoking the civil war» and «attacking the Constitution and property.»
his unpublished letter, dated 12 November 1851, is a passionate and unpublished reflection, close to a letter entitled «De l'Idée de Progrès,» written around ten days later, that Proudhon published with another (“De la Certitude et de son criterium”) in the work Philosophie du progrès. This set of texts was composed only two weeks before the final assumption of power from Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, which he immediately opposed. Once released from prison in 1852, Proudhon published the two letters at Lebègue in Brussels in order to escape censorship, which had prohibited the sale of the booklet on French territory.
Already having been detained for two years in the jails of the future French emperor, Proudhon writes to Romain-Cornut from Sainte-Pélagie prison, a journalist from La Presse, who had just finished a series of articles on Auguste Comte's positivism (Etudes critiques sur le socialisme, October-November 1851). This letter must be viewed as an admirable four-page plea, or more a confession of his socialist vision of progress, a «social positivism» which is based on the reconsideration of the ancient order: «we withdraw in the face of an intellectual negation, which is the sine qua non condition of further progress.» In this letter, Proudhon attempts to convince his reader of the merits of his convictions, and does not hesitate to employ flattery that contrasts strangely with his usual verve ( «Do not take my word for it, [...] that I have the least desire to influence your opinion, whatever desire I have to conquer a mind as judicious as yours”). During the course of the letter he establishes a balance between his polemical soul and his desire for legitimacy, aspiring to be recognised by his peers no longer as a mere agitator, but as a true philosopher. We are indeed reminded of his famous wit ( «Property is theft!”), his sympathy for the 1848 uprisings as well as his acerbic pamphlets in Le Peuple that consecrated his radical reputation: «I have been, until this day, so foolishly judged, even by the socialists [...] Because I led the criticism of the old principles as far as it could go [...] I still appear to many people as only the pure and simple negation of what is.» Proudhon, however maintains his intention to leave the shields of criticism (“leaving the argument of circumstance for the moment in my new studies”) and thus implies the writing of a new, deeper work, which will, in 1853, result in La Philosophie du progrès dedicated to the same Romain-Cornut.
Proudhon, an anarchist in favour of the abolition of the State and of its double, the government, does not however renounce the criticism of the «system,» which is by definition anti-progressive «Yet, it is unquestionable, from this progressive point of view, that our society as a whole, monarchists, democrats, Catholics, philosophers, is still absolutist: what everyone wants, is a charter, a constitution, a system, a fixed and definitive legislation, finally.» In addition to political systems, Proudhon picks up this same idealism in the philosophical thinking of his elders and does not refrain from giving a violent condemnation: «Like Pascal, like the Germans, we want the absolute! [...] Spinoza, Malebranche, Leibnitz, etc., all of whom, operating on the categories of substance causality, eternity, unity, plurality, etc. have arrived at politically and intellectually immobile systems, at the absolute.» He noted the harmful effects of the political regimes and of the philosophies that were insensitive to the vicissitudes of history, shaken in spite of everything by the changes that the 1848 revolution had signalled. By taking into consideration the instability inherent in human society, he offers his own definition of an anarchist and «non-interventionalist» progress: «The social system only exists in the series of ages: it is an historic ensemble, not a current one. This is why it is never given to a generation, let alone to a man, to perceive to predict the small portion of progress to be carried out in the following age: all that we can do, is propose an ideal aim, that is to say, to assert in general the direction of movement, and to note some laws, never to assert anything complete, definitive, absolute.» Proudhon places himself as a prophet, at the same time as announcer and denouncer of the blindness of French scholars still caught up in their ideas of the absolute: «There is no man, in the entire universe, who perceives this revolution, which is on the brink of happening in philosophy by the recent introduction of the idea of progress in metaphysics.»
his epistolary philosophical essay does not overlook Proudhon's condition, a political prisoner for whom the verb is the only proof of good faith; he
is trying to obtain an interview with Romain-Cornut in order to clarify his words orally: «I will be happy, Sir, talking with you about all of these things, to explain to you what I want, what I am.» The print media, that Proudhon hopes to reach through his reader, serves as a court of ideas, in which the public is the judge: «this is the strong and the weak, as you like, of my socialism; it is on this that I should be condemned or absolved.»
Unpublished letter by one of the most important French philosophers of the 19th century to the journalist Romain-Cornut, to whom he will dedicate his Philosophie du progrès (1853). Proudhon featured some weeks later among the ranks of opponents exiled from the Empire of Napoleon III, alongside Victor Hugo and Louis Blanc.

First edition, one of 6 numbered copies on Chine, the tirage de tête.
Inevitable foxing, because of the China paper, in the margins of some leaves.
Rare and nice copy with edges preserved.

First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on pur fil paper, the only grand papier (deluxe) copies.
Rare and nice copy.

First edition, one of 14 numbered copies on pur fil, the only large paper copies.
Very rare and nice copy retaining its advertising slip.

Full autograph manuscript, signed, written in black and red markers for the title page and in blue ink for the text.

Our manuscript is presented under shirt and case in full gray canvas made for Henri Béraud, label of title glued at the top of the shirt.
Back and flat of the case and the shirt insolated and having foxinges.

Complete manuscript in 204 sheets, 203 of which are foliaged and the title page signed with the author's initials and dated 1946, in 12-inch format, single-sided and enriched with in-text color drawings and initials of the author.

Provenance: Henri Béraud's library.

First edition, one of 230 numbered copies on white vellum, only leading copies.
Illustrated book of a frontispiece and banners of Forrer, beautiful copy.
Autograph dedication signed by Jacques Perret to Henri Devaux.

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on pure laid paper, the only deluxe copies.
A fine copy.

First edition, one of 64 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the only grand papier (deluxe) copies.
Rare and nice copy.

First edition, one of 13 numbered copies on Or Turner paper, large paper copy, the fewest copies.

Rare and nice copy with double cover.

First collected edition, one of 260 numbered copies on vélin teinté paper, the only large paper copies.
A few marginal wormholes to some leaves, including endpapers.

First edition, an advance (service de presse) copy.
Autograph inscription from Jorge Semprun to the Professeur Georges Blin.
A good copy.

First edition, one of 20 numbered copies on Japan paper, the tirage de tête.
Half maroon morocco over marbled paper boards by P. Goy & C. Vilaine, spine in six compartments, maroon paper pastedowns and endpapers, covers preserved, top edge gilt.
A fine, well-margined copy in a lovely binding.

The first edition, which appeared in plain covers
This copy has a chemise of half blue morocco over blue marbled paper boards and slipcase of blue marbled paper edged with blue morocco
Foxing, an angular lack to the first blank endpaper, traces of folds to plain covers
Very rare autograph inscription from François-René de Chateaubriand: “De la part de l'auteur [from the author]” to head of half-title
A precious, unsophisticated copy enriched with an autograph inscription from the author.

First edition, one of rares copies d'auteur on Hollande dont il n'est fait nulle mention, the only large paper copies.
Small and slight foxings on covers and some edges.
Rare copy with edges preserved.
Provenance : Henri Béraud's library.

First edition of the French translation, one of 75 numbered copies on pur fil, tirage de tête.
With original illustrations by Orfeo Tamburi.
A good copy.

First edition, one of 60 numbered copies on pur fil, the only large paper copies.
A good copy.

First edition, one of 230 numbered copies on Alfa paper. Handwritten inscription signed by the author. A tiny marginal tear on the front cover, ex-libris pasted on the first blank endpaper.

First edition, one of 15 copies on pure rag vellum, the only deluxe paper copies.
A very fine copy.

First edition, no copies printed on deluxe paper.
A small professionally restored tear at the foot of the spine, slightly creased as usual.
Rare presentation copy inscribed and signed by François Mitterrand to Dr. Robert Saury.

First edition of the French translation, one of 25 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe issue.
A fine copy.

First edition, of which there were no deluxe copies.
Handsome copy.
Autograph inscription dated and signed by Jorge Semprun to actor and film producer Pierre-Henri Deleau: "... en souvenir de quelques belles journées sans neige.." ("...in memory of some beautiful days without snow..")

First edition, one of 450 numbered copies on vergé Ivoire especially printed for the Companions of Liberation.
A fine copy.
Signed and inscribed by Romain Gary to Jean Tranape, Companion of Liberation, who enlisted in September 1940, after New Caledonia joined the Free French Forces, and fought in Commander Félix Broche's bataillon du Pacifique.
A hero of the battle of Bir Hakeim, he was wounded during the Italian campaign and again in the fighting to liberate Toulon. He was flag-bearer for the 1st Marine Infantry Battalion during the victory parade on the Champs-Elysées.

 

First edition, one of 250 numbered copies on alfa paper and reserved for the Service de Presse.
Foxing to covers and endpapers.
Precious and handsome signed autograph inscription by André Suarès: "A mon cher Jouhandeau, trop "juste" et trop fils de la toute vive Agnès pour ne pas se soustraire à la tyrannie du corse. S." ["To my dear Jouhandeau, too "just" and too much the son of the very lively Agnès not to escape the tyranny of the Corsican. S."]

Autograph letter signed by Jean Jaurès, headed by the Chamber of Deputies, politician and journalist Arthur Huc (1854-1932).
Returning from the Tarn, Jean Jaurès sends him congratulations and thanks for invaluable information that will help him to support and reinforce one of his next speeches in the Chamber of Deputies. He responds favorably to the invitation he has received from Madame Huc, and hereby transmits her respectful homage.
Some small freckles without gravity.

First edition, one of 8 numbered copies on Japon, this one n°1, tirage de tête.
A rare and very good copy with edges preserved.

First edition.
Spine and covers lightly soiled, some foxing but otherwise a handsome copy.
Very rare.

First edition, a Service de Presse (advance) copy.
Autograph inscription signed by Jacques Audiberti to Nathalie Sarraute.
Spine sunned, complete with publisher's slip.