L’incroyable aventure littéraire et poétique de la négritude

First edition, one of 25 numbered copies on pur fil, the only deluxe copies.

A rare and fine copy.

"A thunderclap of a title, a bitter draught that rings out like "Blue Note" in jazz, like "Cuba libre" among Caribbean cocktails. Damas, the stammerer, sings of solitude, the fear of being abandoned by the woman he loves and waits for, the sorrow and cowardice of "whitening," as do the jazz musicians he venerates" (Kathleen Gyssels)

First edition, one of 55 numbered copies on mould-made Arches wove paper, the only deluxe issue.

Rear cover slightly and marginally sunned, very faint offsetting to the head and foot of the endpapers.

First edition, one of 35 numbered copies on pur fil, most limited issue. In addition, 25 hors-commerce copies on vélin labeur.

A fine and rare copy.

Edition illustrated by Gaston Barret.

Publisher's full beige paper boards, smooth spine, a complete copy retaining its illustrated dust jacket, the latter with a few small marginal tears.

Precious signed autograph inscription from René Maran: "A M. Maurice Genevoix, qui honore l'Académie Française de son caractère et de son talent. René Maran."

First edition of the French translation, one of the ordinary issue copies, as no deluxe paper copies were produced.

A very good copy.

Signed autograph inscription from Richard Wright to Pierre Descaves.

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on vélin pur chiffon de lana, the only deluxe issue.

A fine copy, with a small nick at the head of the spine between the author's name and the title.

Presentation copy, inscribed by Patrick Chamoiseau to Maurice Marchaux: "... cette mémoire-langage qui invoque toutes les langues du monde. Avec mes amitiés créoles..." [this memory language invoking all of the world's languages] with a sketch formed from his initials.

First edition of this collection of political speeches.

Full red percaline binding, smooth spine without lettering showing slight rubbing, gilt inscription stamped to the upper cover: "République de Guinée R.D.A. à S.E. Jean Paul Sartre. N°30"; endpapers partly toned, a contemporary presentation binding offered to Jean-Paul Sartre.

Frontispiece photographic portrait bearing the autograph signature of President Ahmed Sékou Touré: Secretary General of the Parti Démocratique de Guinée, Supreme Leader of the Revolution.

First edition.

Publisher’s binding, smooth olive-green cloth spine partially faded, upper headcap trimmed, cream boards speckled with pink, bumped corners, shadowed endpapers.

Signed autograph inscription by Thomas Nelson Page at the head of the title page.

Manuscript of 83 leaves of this French–Bunda dictionary, probably unpublished and unsigned.

This manuscript is certainly the first French–Bunda vocabulary (cf. Gay 3068 and Brunet I-1544).

Half red shagreen binding, spine with four raised bands ruled in black, gilt date at foot, minor rubbing to spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.

First edition of one of the most important revolutionary publications against the African slave trade and the first manifesto of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks, founded in February 1788 by Jacques-Pierre Brissot, Étienne Clavière, and Mirabeau, barely nine months after the London Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which served as their model.
 

 

First edition on ordinary paper.

Small pale dampstains on the spine.

Inscribed, signed and dated by Maurice Genevoix to Nicole and Philippe Derez.

First edition, for which there was not printed any grand papier (deluxe) copies.
Publisher's binding in full grey cloth.
Illustrations.

Copy complete of its dust jacket illustrated by Jimmy Ernst, the dust jacket being in a poor state with several tears and corners missing.

Very precious handwritten dedication signed by Harriet Janis to Boris Vian: “To Boris Vian with Paris greetings for Rudi Blesh & myself, Harriet Janis. May 1953.”

First edition, a numbered copy on alfa du Marais paper, this one not included in the justification.
Handsome autograph inscription signed and dated by Aimé Césaire to Raymond Queneau: “Très sympathique hommage de ces bucoliques de sang et de soleil... [a very affectionate homage of these bucolics of blood and sunshine...]”
Covers and spine slightly sunned at edges (but not seriously).

Press clipping illustrated with a photograph depicting Josephine Baker on stage.

Horizontal central fold, minor tears of no consequence along the right margin of the clipping.

Inscribed and signed by Josephine Baker in black felt-tip pen a few months before her passing: "A Claude Armand ami de Jospéhine Baker 1975".

First edition, no copies printed on deluxe paper.
Illustrated, a pleasant copy

Precious and very fine autograph inscription, dated and signed by Samuel Mbajum: "Paris, 30 June 2014, au ministre Bernard Kouchner, avec ma sympathie pour votre combat humanitaire, en espérant que vous m'aiderez à plaider le plus largement possible la cause de ces oubliés de l'histoire franco-africaine, et aussi des débats sur la commémoration de la Grande Guerre."

Photographic portrait of Erroll Garner, seated at his piano.

A fine copy.

Inscribed and signed by Erroll Garner in blue ink in the upper left margin of the photograph.

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

First edition of the French translation of England, The United States and the Southern Confederacy, originally published the previous year in London (Sabin 76968).

Copy belonging to the philosopher Charles Renouvier (1815–1903), with a manuscript presentation inscription at the head of the front wrapper.

Spine cracked with small losses and tears. Some light foxing; slight marginal tears to the wrappers.

First edition, very rare, of this album illustrated with 12 lithographic plates by Émile Verdier after drawings by the author (1 frontispiece and 11 plates, including one large folding plate depicting Pointe-à-Pitre) (cf. Sabin 8949).

Text and illustrations by Armand Budan.

Contemporary binding in brown quarter cloth with corners, smooth spine with long chocolate shagreen title-piece, boards covered with marbled paper framed by blind fillets, blue endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges, early 20th-century binding.

The plates depict: Palmiste River. Heights of Petit-Bourg; Forest interior. Road to the Soufrière; View of the Soufrière from Versailles; The Yellow Baths...

Second edition of the French translation, complete with its folding map at the beginning of the volume.

Scattered light foxing, otherwise a well-preserved copy.

Preface by Édouard René Lefebvre de Laboulaye.

Bound in contemporary chocolate-brown half morocco, spine with five raised bands ruled in black, double blind fillets framing the marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, red top edge, slightly rubbed corners, bookplate affixed to a pastedown.

French translation of The Lost Continent: or, Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa by the Quaker abolitionist Joseph Cooper (1800–1881).

The work is of particular interest for its early...

Rare first edition illustrated with 10 splendid full-page colour plates by John Gerrard Keulemans, lithographed, hand-coloured and gum-finished (cf. Not in Gay. Nissen, Illustrierten Vogelbücher, 74. Anker, Bird Books, p. 69. Unrecorded by Ronsil, Bibliographie ornithologique française. Zimmer, p. 39).

Contemporary half brown morocco over marbled boards, spine with five raised bands, slightly faded, gilt lettering with date and place at foot, corners in morocco, orange endpapers and pastedowns. Minor rubbing to spine.

"Portugal too, has contibuted to the knowledge of african avifauna, for instance in the work 'Ornithologie d'Angola' […] an important monograph on the birds...

First edition, illustrated with four plates including a map of the Sudan.

The plates depict human types and a map of Sudan, drawn "according to the Negro slaves in Bahia".

Modern Bradel binding in black half shagreen, smooth spine decorated with two gilt floral tools, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, original wrappers preserved (small hole on rear board).

A naturalist and explorer, Francis de Castelnau undertook, between 1843 and 1847, a major expedition across South America, notably visiting Peru and Brazil.

In 1848, he was appointed French consul in Bahia. Upon his arrival, he observed that several African-born slaves could read and write Arabic and...

Very rare first edition of this excellent grammar.

A few occasional spots, otherwise a pleasing copy.

Contemporary-style binding in half forest green morocco-grained shagreen, spine with five raised bands, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, binding signed by Laurenchet.

The third part contains fables, tales, and poems in both Wolof and French.

Abbé David Boilat (Saint-Louis, Senegal, 1814 – Nantouillet, 1901), a missionary in Senegal, left behind a significant body of work: this grammar, the Esquisses sénégalaises, and several unpublished manuscripts.

First French edition published simultaneously with the octavo edition (more common), by the same publisher. Illustrated with a folding frontispiece, a large folding map of the Cape and 15 plates, some folding. All plates have been bound at the end of volumes I and II.

Contemporary full speckled brown sheep binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label, black morocco volume labels. Double blind fillet to boards. Lacks to joints at head of volume I. Upper joint narrowly split at head and tail of tome I. In tome II upper joint rubbed. Corners restored with leather strips. At the end of the second volume, some leaves browned, otherwise scattered light foxing...

First edition, one of 120 numbered copies on Lafuma pure wove paper, the only large-paper issue.

Endpapers very slightly and marginally toned, two small tears at foot of spine.

A rare and much sought-after copy in original state.

Later edition on ordinary paper.

Illustrated wrappers.
Illustrations.
Spine slightly split as is often the case, a few minor marginal tears to the covers, the paper inevitably toned owing to the poor quality of this post-war stock.
Inscribed, dated and signed by Marcel Sauvage to Mr. Berthet.

First edition, one of 2,000 numbered copies on alfa paper.

Manuscript initials at the head of the upper cover and of the title page serving as an ex-libris.

A pleasant copy.

Later edition.

Publisher's full green cloth binding, smooth spine, copy complete with its illustrated dust jacket which shows a few small tears and minor losses.

The verso of the front panel of the dust jacket shows an angular loss affecting the printed price.

Dated and signed autograph inscription from Richard Wright to Ganan Bocca.

First edition, for which no copies were issued on deluxe paper, this being one of the publisher’s review copies.

A small tear at the head of the upper cover, a crease at the foot of the lower.

A pleasing copy, complete with its promotional band.

Dated and signed autograph inscription by René Depestre to the writer Christiane Baroche.

Vezry rare first edition.

Jesuit library stamp to the half-title, a few minor spots of foxing, slight tears to the head and tail of the spine.

First edition of the illustrated French translation, embellished in the second volume with a plate, a folding table, and a large folding map printed as a separate leaf (cf. Gay 2996).

Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spines gilt with fillets, garlands, and floral tools, red morocco title and volume labels, with the volume labels inlaid with green morocco, gilt rolls at the headcaps, minor rubbing to the spines, dentelle, single gilt fillet and gilt garland framing the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the board edges, lemon edges; bindings of the period.

In 1797, John Barrow (1764–1848) accompanied Lord Macartney, as his...

First illustrated edition, featuring at the end of the volume 12 charming hand-coloured copper engravings depicting fashionable hairstyles and costumes (10), as well as furniture (2).

Contemporary binding in half midnight-blue calf, smooth spine decorated with lozenge tools and gilt fillets, gilt tail ornament, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, marbled edges.

The work is also illustrated with a portrait of Bonaparte as a frontispiece and one plate hors-texte.

Foxing, black ink stains to page 81.

This work, intended for an American readership, as stated in the Preface ("L'espèce de journal dont nous offrons ici le premier essai, ne contiendra que rarement...

Photographic postcard depicting Lionel Hampton in the 1960s–70s playing the vibraphone.

A handsome copy.

Signed by Lionel Hampton in blue felt-tip pen on the verso of the photograph.

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

First edition with no mention of deluxe copies.
Handsome copy complete with its illustrated dust jacket.
Dated and signed autograph inscription from Alain Mabanckou to a photographer named Valérie, enhanced with a self-portrait face drawing.

First edition for which was no grand papier (deluxe) copy.
Pleasant copy of this work which received the Prix Fémina in 1984.
Rare and precious handwritten inscripttion, dated and signed by Tchicaya U Tam'si to Régine Deforges: “Pour Régine Deforges qui a écrit quelques mots que j'aurais voulu mettre en guise de dédicace mais ma mémoire est moins fidèle que moi. à elle toute la poésie de ce 'roman'.” (“For Régine Deforges who wrote some words that I would have liked to include as a dedication but my memory is less faithful than me. To her, all the poetry of this 'novel'.”)

Provenance: from the library of Régine...

First edition, one of 15 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the leading copies.
This copy with the original frontispiece lithograph by André Masson.
Hors-texte illustrations by André Masson.
A very good and rare copy.

First collected edition, one of 15 numbered copies on pur fil paper, the only large paper copies.
A very good copy.
Rare.