Les microbes humains

Very rare first edition, with second edition statement on title page.

Bradel binding in half blue-grey percaline, smooth spine decorated with a central gilt fleuron, double gilt fillet at tail, title label lacking, cat's-eye paper boards, original wrappers preserved with angular losses and discolouration, corners slightly rubbed, period binding.

Foxing, front wrapper and first free endpaper clumsily restored, small tears repaired on the first three leaves.

Rare presentation copy inscribed by Louise Michel: "... à de méchants amis que l'on aime quand même et toujours. LMichel." [to wicked friends whom one loves nonetheless and always] This copy belonged to her friend Odysse Barot, who left his manuscript ex-libris on the red cover of the volume.

A supporter of the Paris Commune, Odysse Barot served notably as editor-in-chief of La Marseillaise and Le Fédéraliste (two issues published, 21-22 May 1871). Louise Michel wrote about him in Commune:

"A duel fought American-style between the journalist Odysse Barot and the financier Jecker caused, some time after the Mexican War, all the more of a stir in that Barot  (who had been written off for dead having taken a bullet full in the chest) suddenly took a turn for the better and ultimately made a complete recovery, going on to proclaim that the enemies of the Empire were hard men to kill. Since then, financial ventures far more monstrous than those of that era have come to light. Alongside the clamour for war, there were demonstrations for peace, made up of students, internationalists, and revolutionaries." (La Commune, Paris, P. V. Stock, p. 13).

To recount the dreadful arrest of her close friend, the Communarde Marie Ferré, Louise Michel quoted Barot's Dossier: a vigorous attack on the failings of the French judiciary and a plea against the irremovability of magistrates. During the suppression of the Paris insurrection, the authorities had searched Marie's home while she lay gravely ill in bed, watched over by her mother:

"I find, in Odysse Barot's Dossier de la magistrature, an exact account of the arrest of Marie Ferré, and I quote these pages, written while the emotion of that dreadful scene was still raw; they will serve as a preface to her death.

Faced with this appalling choice: either to send her son to his death or to destroy her daughter by allowing her to be taken away. Beside herself with grief, and despite the imploring looks that the heroic Marie directs at her, the wretched mother loses her head, falters!… […] Mme Ferré collapses; a burning fever sets in, her reason grows clouded; incoherent phrases escape her lips. The executioners listen closely, lying in wait for the least word that might serve as a clue. In her delirium, the unhappy mother lets slip, several times over, the words: Rue Saint-Sauveur. Alas, that was all they needed. While two of these men keep the Ferré household under close watch, the others rush off to complete their work. The Rue Saint-Sauveur is surrounded, searched. Théophile Ferré is arrested… A few months later, he is shot to death." (Mémoires de Louise Michel écrits par elle-même, Paris, Roy, 1886, p. 429)

Odysse Barot also endeavoured to smooth the stormy relations between Louise Michel and her publisher during the writing of her Mémoires: "It all begins in early 1885, when Louise Michel, then in prison, finds the publisher Roy through her friend Odysse Barot, journalist, critic and novelist. Barot is the author, among other works, of a history of English literature that Louise Michel reads and holds in high regard. He will act as go-between throughout this three-way drama." ("Louise Michel, comment on devient 'projectile'", Claude Rétat, in Louise Michel, Mémoires, Paris, Gallimard). Louise Michel thus inscribed this copy to Barot at the height of her conflict with her publisher, in a bid to safeguard the integrity of her life's account.