L'étranger

First edition, no copies on deluxe paper issued.

3/4 brown half morocco binding, spine with color restoration, five raised bands framed in black, gilt date at foot, boards, endpapers and pastedowns in wood-grain style marbled paper, covers and spine preserved, gilt edges, an elegant binding signed Alix.

Manuscript ex-libris in black ink and a discreet restoration to the upper right corner of the first endpaper.

4,400 copies of the first edition of L'Étranger were printed on 21 April 1942 and divided into eight “editions” of 550 copies each. As a result, most copies bear on the back cover a false statement of second to eighth edition.
Paper was scarce in 1942, and as Albert Camus was then an unknown author, Gallimard did not print any copies on deluxe paper. Copies without any statement of edition are particularly sought after.