First World War

First edition, one of 28 numbered copies on Japan paper, the only large-paper copies after 10 on China paper and 12 on vieux Japon.
A fine and rare copy.

First edition, one of 21 numbered copies on Japon impérial paper, part of the deluxe issue (tirage de tête) after 10 copies on Japon nacré.
A fine copy with full margins.

First edition of the French translation by Isabelle Rivière, one of 33 numbered copies on pur fil de Voiron, ours being one of 5 hors commerce copies, reimposed in quarto Tellière format, the only deluxe copies.

A handsome and rare copy.

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 with all first printing  features, one of the press copies.

Exceptional presentation copy inscribed by the author to the famous singer Yvette Guilbert, to whom Céline himself sang and offered one of his scandalous compositions, “Katika la putain,” [Katika the Whore] later renamed “À Nœud coulant” [With a Slipknot"] "A madame Yvette Guilbert en témoignage de ma profonde admiration. LFCéline.” 

Beneath Céline's inscription, the actor Fabrice Luchini added: “A Yvette Guilbert in memoriam. FLuchini” ; and on the half-title, actor Jean-François Balmer wrote in turn: “Merci en bon voyage. JFBalmer.”

With pasted-in entry tickets to their respective performances of Voyage au bout de la...

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe copies.
Bound in red half shagreen with corners, spine with four raised bands framed by blind fillets, sides covered in gilt-effect paper, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt on witnesses.
A handsome copy in an attractive binding.

Card bearing the letterhead of the permanent secretariat of the Académie française, on which Maurice Genevoix has inscribed the following words:

"Pour Claude Armand, avec mes voeux et mes amitiés. Maurice Genevoix."

Maurice Genevoix served as Permanent Secretary of the Académie française from October 1958 to January 1974.

A handsome example. Accompanied by an envelope, typed and bearing the letterhead of the Institut de France.

Provenance: from the collection of the distinguished autograph collector Claude Armand.

Lettre autographe signée de Pierre Drieu la Rochelle. Une page à l'encre noire sur un feuillet. Traces de plis transversaux inhérentes à l'envoi.
L'écrivain offre une très belle analyse de ses vers inspirés du front, rassemblés sous le titre provocateur de Fond de cantine, paru en 1920. Il demande l'avis de la poétesse Renée de Brimont, petite nièce de Lamartine, qui publia également à la Nrf : "Merci Madame de la décision très fine de ces vers me coupent comme un regret. Que chacun se retire dans soi-même. Que puis-je espérer que vous pensez de ces rythmes...

First edition, one of the first-issue copies numbered by the printer.

Minor tears to the joints and foot of the spine.

Rare dated autograph inscription by Georges Duhamel, signed with his real surname: \"Au docteur Weissenbach souvenir de nos études, son affectueux GDuhamel.\"

Manuscript presentation inscription by the recipient at the head of the front wrapper.

First edition, one of 262 numbered copies printed on pur fil paper in a larger format.
A very good copy.

First Gallimard edition, one of 750 numbered copies on vélin labeur paper, the only deluxe issue.
Publisher's illustrated boards designed by Paul Bonet.
Copy slightly warped along the edges of the text block.

First edition, one of 40 numbered copies on Holland paper, the deluxe issue.
Contemporary red half shagreen bindings by Bellevallée, spines slightly faded, raised on five bands tooled with black fillets, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, top edges gilt on the rough, original wrappers and spines preserved.

A rare and handsome copy, attractively bound.

First edition, in two volumes, of the series Commentaires sur la guerre des Boches. Copies numbered on Arches laid paper for both volumes, from the tirage de tête.

Printed wrappers lightly soiled, spine and margins of the front cover of the first volume sunned, slight tears to the spine ends, corner creases to the leaves, and an ink stain in the margin of the first volume. A few passages highlighted in pencil in the first volume. The second volume is untrimmed, with full margins throughout.

Autograph inscription, dated and signed "S." from André Suarès to Ventura García Calderón, on the front free endpaper of the first volume: "A Mr. V. Garcia Calderon, votre deuil redouble nos sympathies...

First edition, one of 70 numbered copies on pur fil paper, the deluxe issue after 25 hors commerce copies on Holland paper reserved for the Cercle lyonnais.

Rare and fine copy.

Autograph poem by Louis Aragon, signed and dated 31 March 1915. Fourteen lines written in pencil on a single leaf, with unpublished autograph calculations on the verso. Published in 2008 by Michel Apel-Muller in Le Continent Aragon, special issue of L’Humanité, 2008, p. 17, and reissued under the title “Poème” in Le Rayonnement international d’Aragon, Strasbourg, coll. “Recherches croisées Aragon / Elsa Triolet”, no. 16, 2018, p. 251. Numerous traces of handling, with vertical and horizontal folds that have caused minor paper losses, without affecting the text. 

A precious fragment of literary history, this sonnet, published only in 2008, is the earliest known poem by Aragon, according to...

First edition of the French translation, one of 210 numbered copies on pur fil paper, the deluxe issue.

Spine and boards lightly faded at the margins, as is often the case.

First edition, printed in 400 copies and dedicated in particular to the memory of the Armenians who were massacred because their industrious people stood in the way of German ambitions.

Spine and covers lightly and marginally sunned, small tears to the inside flaps of the wrappers, two small holes at the foot of the lower cover, unlettered spine.

Inscribed presentation copy, dated and signed by Antoine Poidebard to Vice Admiral Lejay, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

Illustrated edition featuring original lithographs by Edmond Lajoux, one of 40 numbered copies printed on Rives wove paper.

A pleasing copy, complete with its slipcase and chemise, both partially and lightly sunned, a minor condition issue.

The slipcase is slightly split at the upper edge.

As called for in the limitation statement, our copy retains the black suite of the illustrations as well as an original preparatory artwork for the illustrations.

Our copy is further exceptionally enriched with an original signed colour watercolour by Edmond Lajoux depicting a column of French infantrymen carrying their packs and equipment.

First edition, one of 822 numbered copies on pur fil paper, the only deluxe paper issue after 109 reimposed copies.
A pleasing copy despite two small areas of sunning at the head and foot of the spine.

First British edition of 1955 (the first edition of 1954 is American), complete with its dark pink dust jacket designed by Lynton Lamb, on which one of the two prizes received by A Fable in 1955 is mentioned: the Pulitzer Prize. This is the work on which William Faulkner laboured longest and which he considered his masterpiece.

Publisher's binding in candy-pink cloth, with title and author's name gilt in a false panel at the head of the spine, and publisher's name gilt at the foot. Galignani bookshop label affixed to the foot of the front pastedown.

Colour very slightly faded to the headcaps, discreet staining to the foot of the spine and to the tail edge. To the dust jacket, the spine...

First edition on ordinary paper with all the features of the first printing. Includes its publisher’s band expertly restored and the publisher’s catalogue at rear.

An exceptionally fresh copy, preserved with its rare red publisher’s band quoting Molly’s phrase “C’est le voyageur solitaire qui va le plus loin” (“he travels farthest who travels alone”, translation by John H. P. Marks) followed by this text on the verso:

 

“One should not be misled by the tone of this extraordinary novel and take Journey to the End of the Night for a pamphlet by the violence of its sarcasm as well as its ever-present and particularly ferocious satire. The author aims to create a very faithful image of urban...

New edition, limited to 2,000 numbered copies on Lafuma vellum.

Signed autograph presentation inscription by Henri Barbusse beneath the limitation statement: "A Marcel Granoux fraternellement. Henri Barbusse."

Included are an original photograph of Henri Barbusse (8.9 × 13.8 cm, from the G.L. Manuel Frères studio), showing him full face, together with two typed letters dated 28 April and 2 July 1930, signed by Henri Barbusse, concerning an article he was late in sending and a copy of Le Feu that he promises to inscribe and forward to his correspondent.

The first typed letter also bears two manuscript corrections by Henri Barbusse.

A fine and cohesive ensemble.

First edition, one of 13 numbered copies on imperial Japan paper, deluxe issue.

Spine and boards very lightly and marginally sun-toned, without significance.

Rare and pleasing copy, with full margins and uncut.

First edition, one of the 10 numbered and justified copies on japon paper, the only large-paper issue announced.

Contemporary half brown morocco binding in the Bradel style, smooth spine, marbled paper boards, handmade endpapers, bookplate affixed to the front pastedown, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, period binding.

Signed and dated autograph inscription from Jean Puget to his publisher Pierre Briquet: "... en souvenir des jours héroïques..."

Provenance: from the personal library of publisher Pierre Briquet, with his bookplate affixed to the front pastedown.

Exceptionally rare copy featuring the censored passages restored in black ink, likely by the publisher, on...

First edition, one of the press copies.

Full emerald-green morocco, flat spine with a gilt rule lengthwise, title and author gilt-stamped, frontdecorated with multiple gilt rules framing a central onlaid panel of blue shagreen, light green suede endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, top edge gilt, binding signed Boichot.

Exceptional and highly desirable presentation copy inscribed and signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline: "A mons. Pierre Jean Jouve cordial hommage Louis Celine."

First edition of Pierre Drieu la Rochelle's first book, one of 150 numbered copies on Hollande laid paper, the only deluxe copies.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Pierre Drieu la Rochelle : « to Charles Maurras this anxious testimony. Pierre Drieu la Rochelle ex. sergeant in the 146^th Infantry. October 1^st, 1917. »
Important testimony of the young Drieu la Rochelle's admiration – then in full intellectual development – for the « master of Martigues » to whom he sends this copy of his war poems composed in 1916 after being wounded at Verdun.
Demobilized and disillusioned by a war for which he had enlisted hoping to wash away the defeat of 1870, Drieu oscillates between Aragon's...

First edition and first printing of Lucien Laforge’s pacifist illustrations, one of 400 deluxe copies on special matte red paper from the Barthélémy paper mills, the only deluxe issue announced.
Some light wear, otherwise a very good copy of this fierce anti-militarist pamphlet in which runs "comme le grésillement du fer rouge marquant à vif la chair pâle et grasse du Bourgeois repu de morts" (Paul Vaillant-Couturier in L'Humanité).