French Resistance

First edition, with no deluxe-paper copies printed.
Illustrations.

A handsome copy despite the slightly faded spine.

Precious and fine signed presentation copy from Louis Aragon to Maurice Druon: "A Maurice Druon, pour qu'il sache que de temps je m'égarée dans Césarée. [sic] Louis".

First collective edition on ordinary paper.

Pleasing copy.

Valuable presentation copy signed by Louis Aragon: "A Maurice Druon, pour n'en pas perdre l'habitude. Louis."

 

First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on Holland paper, the deluxe issue.
Bound in full ebony morocco, smooth spine decorated with small inlays of garnet morocco and pearl-grey box calf, the latter framing the author’s initials and the title; the first numeral of the date, given in Roman numerals, appears within a square of pearl-grey box calf. Morocco boards framed with wide panels of chocolate suede, the upper cover with a large granulated paper panel lettered with the title and date of the edition set in garnet morocco, the initials framed by a rectangle of paper taken from a map of Haute-Savoie; bluish paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt; housed in a chemise with a rhodoid-backed spine and slipcase trimmed with ebony morocco. Binding signed by Pierre-Lucien Martin and dated 1964.

These “memoirs-autobiography” by Simone de Beauvoir trace her life from her success at the agrégation prepared with Jean-Paul Sartre to the Liberation of Paris in August 1944.

A superb and celebrated binding, produced in a few copies, each differing slightly, by Pierre-Lucien Martin, one of the masters of twentieth-century French bookbinding.

First edition, one of 150 numbered copies, the only copies on deluxe paper.

Inscribed and signed by Jean-Pierre Abel to Paul Devivat.

Rare and handsome copy with full margins.

First edition published under the pseudonym Cévennes and completed under oppression in Paris on August 1, 1944.

Pleasant copy.

First edition illustrated with original photographs by Robert Doisneau, Marcel Arthaud, Pierre Jahan, Jean Roubier, Pierre Roughol, René Zuber, and Suzanne Laroche.

Publisher’s binding in full tricolour boards, smooth spine without lettering, slightly faded, upper cover decorated with a celebrated photograph by Robert Doisneau, minor spotting to the boards.

A pleasing copy.

First edition printed in 2,000 numbered copies, ours preserved in its original wrappers with Gallimard's resale label.

Fine autograph inscription signed by Jules Roy: "A Jean-Paul Bonnafous ces vieux chants d'un temps de misère, cordialement, Jules Roy."

First edition, one of 45 numbered copies on Vélin du Marais, ours one of 15 lettered copies not for sale, the only copies on deluxe paper.

Attractive copy despite a faint shadow along the margin of the upper cover.

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, 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.

Rare and fragile original French satirical leaflet dated August 1944.
Vertical and horizontal folds.
This rare document begins by stating sarcastic titles and last wishes of Adolf Hitler:
“Hitler, known as Adolphe to the Nazis and Dodofe to the Gretchens of my former Reich of Krauts, declares the following:On the verge of vomiting my soul to the devil, afflicted with dysentery accentuating the brown color of the flaps of my shirt, having my buttocks in disarray (the result of the kicks up my arse picked up on all the fronts of Europe)...”
This mock testament, written in August 1944, delivers a sarcastic commentary on the Axis powers' imminent downfall and lists the beneficiaries of Adolf Hitler's “bequests”:
The testament ends with this peremptory statement: “Made at ... on ... August 1944 in full mental, cerebral and physical decomposition. Dodofe Hitler king of the Little Funnies.”
A very rare anti-Nazi leaflet from the final days of World War II.

First edition, one of 60 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only copies printed on deluxe paper.

Quarter red shagreen with corners, spine with four raised bands ruled in black, gilt-patterned paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.

A handsome and scarce copy, attractively bound.

First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on pure rag vellum, the only copies printed on deluxe paper.

A fine copy.

First edition, one of 29 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe copies.

A fine and rare example.

First edition, one of 30 numbered copies printed on Corvol l'orgueilleux, the only copies on deluxe paper along with a few hors commerce copies on the same paper.

A handsome copy.

Inscribed and signed by Armand Lanoux to Maurice Gorrée: "voici le commandant Watrin histoire d'hommes de bonne volonté," with an original drawing of a flower.

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, one of 25 copies printed on pure wove paper, the only copies on deluxe paper.

A rare and handsome copy.

First edition, one of 135 numbered copies on pure wove paper, the only deluxe copies.
A handsome copy.
Signed autograph note by José Cabanis on the half-title.

First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on Pur Fil du Marais, the only deluxe copies, alongside a few hors commerce also printed on Pur Fil du Marais.

A handsome and scarce copy of this anti-Gaullist pamphlet.

First edition, one of 450 numbered copies on Corsican paper.
A pleasant copy, despite the spine and covers being slightly and marginally toned, as often.

First edition.
Some foxing to spine and boards.

Precious dated and signed autograph inscription from Irène Delmas, president of the National Association of Former Female Deportees and Prisoners of the Resistance (ADIR): "A monsieur Massin avec l'amitié et la reconnaissance des Anciennes Déportées de la Résistance. IRDelmas Présidente de l'ADIR. Paris 13 Novembre 1957." (To Mr. Massin with the friendship and gratitude of the Former Female Deportees of the Resistance. IRDelmas President of ADIR. Paris 13 November 1957.)

Our copy is exceptionally enhanced with the signatures of several members of the editorial committee of the Association of Female Deportees and Prisoners of the Resistance or former deportees to Ravensbrück camp including: Geneviève Anthonioz De Gaulle and Catherine Goetschel-Franquinet.

First edition - only published issue of this journal of the Resistance.
Minor rubbing at head and foot of spine, slight tears in margins of covers.
Anonymous texts by Claude Bourdet, Maurice Clavel, Jean-Louis Curtis, Yves Gandon, Flavien Monod and Maximilien Vox, who was the magazine's director.
This single issue was put together between December 1943 and March 1944, but La Revue noire could not be published during the Occupation. The final press proof was given on 15 February 1944 and the imprint is dated 15 February 1945.
A rare and pleasant copy.

Rare example of this propaganda leaflet published by the Nazi Occupier, which became the most iconic image of the Resistance. This smaller version of the famous Affiche Rouge features the poster on the recto and a paragraph on the verso castigating « l'Armée du crime contre la France » ("the Army of Crime against France"). It opens with accusations against the « rêve mondial du complot juif » ("the global dream of the Jewish conspiracy") and claims that « si des Français sabotent, pillent et tuent (...) ce sont toujours des juifs qui les inspirent » ("if Frenchmen sabotage, loot, and kill (...) it is always Jews who inspire them").
A discreet horizontal crease, otherwise superb condition for an ephemeral document.

Accompanied by the rare brochure entitled 'L'armée du crime' ('The army of crime') in the format of a newspaper illustrated with 14 pages of photographs.
A trace of horizontal fold. A fine copy.

Autograph letter signed by Charles de Gaulle, dated and addressed to his cook Augustine Bastide, who served him from 1940 to 1958, 13 lines in black ink on his headed paper.
Fold marks inherent to postal handling.
The de Gaulles had taken in the recipient of this letter, Augustine Bastide, upon their arrival in London. Of Provençal origin, she served the family from 1940 to 1958 first in Great Britain then in France. At the de Gaulle couple's table in an England severely affected by rationing, one could then find rabbits, winkles, and other frogs. The "outspoken Southerner" would remain in the general's service for nearly twenty years, sometimes causing hilarity in the stoic head of state:

« En 1946, alors qu'il venait de quitter le pouvoir volontairement, il lui a lancé : "Vous voyez Augustine, la politique c'est plus décevant que le travail aux fourneaux". Alors, les mains aux hanches, elle a rétorqué : "Mais général, pourquoi ne vous décidez-vous donc pas à rendre définitivement votre tablier ?" Mon père n'a pu se retenir de rire » ("In 1946, when he had just voluntarily left power, he said to her: 'You see Augustine, politics is more disappointing than working at the stove'. Then, hands on her hips, she retorted: 'But General, why don't you decide to hang up your apron for good?' My father couldn't help but laugh")
(Philippe de Gaulle, De Gaulle mon père) 

Autograph letter dated and signed by Charles de Gaulle, addressed to his cook Augustine Bastide, who served him from 1940 to 1958. 21 lines in black ink on his headed paper.

Fold mark inherent to postal folding, minor tears of no consequence at the left and right margins of the central fold.

General de Gaulle thanks her : "I was very touched by the birthday wishes you thought to send me...". He shares the same considerations as his correspondent concerning the role that France must embody on the political level : "You know that, on this matter, my feelings are yours and that, despite the powerlessness and baseness of the present, I do not despair of the future."

The de Gaulles had taken in the recipient of this letter, Augustine Bastide, upon their arrival in London. Of Provençal origin she served the family from 1940 to 1958 first in Great Britain then in France. At the table of the de Gaulle couple in an England severely affected by rationing, one could then find rabbits, periwinkles, and other frogs. The "outspoken Southerner" would remain in the general's service for nearly twenty years, sometimes provoking hilarity from the stoic head of state : 


In 1946, when he had just voluntarily left power, he said to her : "You see Augustine, politics is more disappointing than working at the stoves."  Then, hands on her hips, she retorted : "But general, why don't you decide to hang up your apron for good ?" My father could not help but laugh (Philippe de Gaulle, De Gaulle mon père) 

First edition, one of 35 numbered copies on deluxe paper, the only deluxe copies.
Rare and handsome copy.

First edition.
Former owner's name on upper left corner of title page, spine wrinkled.
Our copy exceptionally contains signatures of several members of the editorial committee of the Association des déportées et internées de la Résistance or former deportees to the Ravensbrück camp, including: Renée Mirande-Laval, Jacqueline Souchère-Richet, Hélène Renal, Rose Guérin, Jacqueline Rigault, Simone Gournay, Marie-Antoinette Allemandi-Clastres, some of whom have added their deportee registration number below their signatures.

First edition, a Service de Presse (advance) copy.
A discreet restoration using a small adhesive piece on the verso of the first cover extending onto the first endpaper.

Autograph inscription signed by André Breton: "A Claude Aveline, hommage d'André Breton".
Nicknamed at 21 "the world's youngest publisher," Claude Aveline would publish from 1922 onwards, thanks to André Gide and Georges Duhamel, some fifty works. In 1934, he would engage in politics, alongside Henri Barbusse and Romain Rolland, in the anti-fascist movement then, from August 1940, in the Resistance first in Paris then in the free zone where he would miraculously escape arrest by the Gestapo in April 1944.

"For a few months now, we have been witnessing a regularised passive hunt for patriots, too highly noticed, it seems, at a time when risking their own life and that of their family's was not a shopfront item.
The odious thing about this way of acting is that it is strangely reminiscent of the Hitlerians. We dishonour, then we wait and see. Regardless of the esteem in which a person is regarded, a police visit always leaves a hint of ambiguity, it is believed. Vigilance more than ever, solidarity.” (7 December 1945 addressed by René Char to Francis Ponge)

The first and only edition of this legendary “Céreste Affair” poster printed by René Char with a very few copies and posted in the small village of Céreste, the heart of his resistance network. Paper slightly yellowed, some small marginal tears not affecting the text. 
Extremely rare, this poster is absent from all institutions and auction houses. The Bibliothèque Nationale de France itself only has a reproduction offered by Pierre-André Benoit.
The famous placard marks the end of the loving and combative relationship between René Char and the village of Céreste which was nevertheless Captain Alexandre's HQ and the birthplace of one of his most moving romantic adventures with his lover nicknamed “la Renarde” (the Vixen).

First edition, one of 350 numbered copies on handmade paper, ours unnumbered, the only deluxe copies.

Half-shagreen red binding, spine with five raised bands highlighted with gilt dotting and decorated with double gilt fillets, small stains on spine, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns, front cover preserved, corners very slightly bumped, speckled top edge, contemporary binding.

Precious autograph inscription dated and signed by Marcel Bleustein, who took the pseudonym Blanchet during the Resistance, to Paul Verneyras.
Press man, union activist and politician, Paul Verneyras joined the Resistance from 1940 by participating in the development of the Libération-Nord movement with Gaston Tessier. For his action during the occupation, Paul Verneyras was decorated with the rosette of the Resistance and made officer of the Legion of Honor.

Moving tribute from one Resistant to another Resistant.

 

First edition, one of 150 numbered copies on vellum, the only deluxe copy.
Bound in half red chagrin, spine with five raised bands set with gilt dotted lines and decorated with double gilt fillets, marbled paper boards, endpapers and flyleaves of mould-made paper, first cover preserved, speckled top edge.
A pleasant copy.