Éducation européenne

First edition in deluxe-paper, issued only a few days after the ordinary trade edition, which was printed in 950 copies on Marais paper. This copy is one of 200 numbered on Outhenin-Chalandre, the only deluxe issue. Rare signed presentation copy of Romain Gary’s first published work, inscribed: “À Roland Feuvrier, bien amicalement Romain Gary \ 15 nov. 1945.”

A pleasant copy despite a few small spots and minor marginal tears to the boards. 

A singular presentation inscription adorns this copy. Romain Gary extends his friendship to “Roland Feuvrier.” Yet the only “Feuvrier” known within Gary’s circle—before, during, and after 1945—was not named “Roland,” but Charles-Valère Feuvrier. Could “Roland” have been a wartime pseudonym by which Gary, after several years of fighting, continued to address Charles-Valère Feuvrier? We have found no biographical evidence to support this hypothesis.

However, an important clue argues in favor of a connection between “Roland” and Charles-Valère Feuvrier. The inscription, which is usually found on the half-title, is here written beneath the printed dedication to Robert Colcanap, who fell in 1943 at the age of twenty-one. He was the youngest member of the “Lorraine” bomber group, to which both Charles-Valère Feuvrier and Romain Gary belonged. It therefore seems highly probable that Gary offered this deluxe copy to Charles-Valère Feuvrier, in memory of their fallen comrade—perhaps intended for one of his close relatives.

Romain Gary and Charles-Valère Feuvrier remained close over the following decades. David Bellos records that the future General Feuvrier served as Gary’s best man at his wedding to Jean Seberg in 1963. At that time, he held the post of head of military security. Through his good offices, the union was quietly sealed, far from public attention, in the Corsican village of Sarrola-Carcopino.

A moving copy of the first edition, bringing together three comrades who fought side by side during the Second World War.