Writers of the Académie française

First edition.
Copy in its original wrappers with printed title labels at head of spines.
Some discreet restorations to spines and wrappers' edges.
Occasional foxing.

First edition, one of 90 copies on Holland paper, ours being one of a few lettered hors commerce copies.
Bradel binding in half brown box, smooth spine, decorated paper boards, brown endpapers and pastedowns, original covers preserved, top edge gilt, binding signed by Goy & Vilaine.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Paul Valéry: « A Victoria Ocampo, - a sus piès de Vd - ce petit rien qu'elle a bien voulu désirer. »
A superb dedication that marks the beginning of the enduring friendship between the two writers, beyond all differences.
At Valéry's death in 1945, Victoria Ocampo would recall their first meeting in December 1928 during a writers’ dinner to...

First edition, for which no copies on larger paper were produced.
A pleasing copy, with press clippings laid in.
Exceptional autograph presentation copy inscribed in English by Claude Lévi-Strauss to the anthropologist Raymond Firth.

Seventh edition, first to illustrate Zimeo, adorned with 7 plates by Moreau le Jeune: a frontispiece and 4 plates for Les Saisons, engraved by Delaunay, Duclos, Prévost and Simonet, and 2 plates for the Contes, Poésies fugitives and Fables orientales, together with 4 headpiece vignettes by Choffard. Our copy is further enriched with separate pulls of the title-page ornament and Choffard's vignettes.
Nineteenth-century binding in full midnight-blue morocco. Five-raised-band spine decorated with pastoral flowers (vine, wheat and billhook, game and hunting horn...) and gilt compartments. Triple gilt fillet and...

First edition of the german translation by Paul Celan, printed on vergé.

Slight foxings, not serious, on one cover of the slipcase.
A good copy.
Autograph inscription, signed and dated, by Paul Celan to the surrealiust painter Edgar Jené and his wife : "Für Erica und Edgar Jené herzlich, Paul Celan. Paris, am 30. Oktober 1960".

First edition, one of 23 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe paper issue together with 10 copies on pur fil.

Endpapers slightly toned and lightly foxed.

HUGO Victor
La Pitié suprême [The Supreme Compassion] Calmann Lévy, Paris 1879, 150 x 240 mm (5 15/16 x 9 7/16 ”), half shagreen
First edition.
Elegant half dark blue shagreen over marbled paper boards by René Aussourd, spine in four compartments with gilt dots and double gilt compartments containing horizontal arabesques and gilt stars, date and “ex. de J. Drouet” in gilt at foot, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine preserved (marginal repairs to covers), top edge gilt, ex-libris of Pierre Duché on one endpaper.
An exceptional presentation copy, inscribed by Victor Hugo to Juliette Drouet, the love of his life: “The first copy...

Seventh edition, first issue of Moreau le Jeune's illustrations, adorned with 7 plates: a frontispiece and 4 plates for Les Saisons, engraved by Delaunay, Duclos, Lebas and Prévost, and 2 plates for the Contes, Poésies fugitives and Fables orientales, together with headpiece vignettes by Choffard, reprinted from the first edition of 1769.
Contemporary full calf binding. Richly decorated smooth spine. Red morocco lettering-piece. Boards in mottled calf (with Greek-key border) added at a later date during restoration. Worn corners. A split to the upper joint extending 5 cm. A very good copy overall.

Edition illustrated with original tailpieces and vignettes by Jean-Gabriel Daragnès engraved on wood, one of 250 numbered copies on Arches vellum, the only edition with 30 various Japan.
Publisher's binding in full flexible boards covered with watered paper, title vignette pasted on the front cover.

Precious and fine autograph inscription from J.-G. Daragnès to André Gide who signed twice (in black ink then in blue ballpoint pen).

A tiny lack at the foot of one joint, handsome copy.

New edition from La collection des classiques français, illustrated with a portrait and a folding map of Spain. Fine edition with classical typography and wide margins.

Full glazed wine-red calf bindings, sky blue title and volume labels, smooth spines richly decorated with cathedral tools and rolls, boards stamped in blind with a large central monastic medallion, a blind border frieze and a second in gilt, boards with slight worm damage, marbled edges.

Magnificent romantic binding by a great binder of the period.

It should be noted that the preface by the Comte de Neufchâteau, academician, is actually by Victor Hugo (then aged 16); the...

Autograph letter dated and signed by Michel Mohrt, four pages, addressed to Thierry Maulnier. 69 lines written in blue ink, notably discussing his candidacy for the Académie française to succeed Marcel Brion's vacant seat.
Folds from original mailing. A paperclip holds the two sheets of the letter together.