Histoire Naturelle imaginaire

First edition, one of 875 numbered copies on vergé de rives paper, ours unnumbered.
Work illustrated with four copperplate engravings by Charles Guyot.
Handsome copy.
Important autograph inscription signed by Henri de Montherlant to the woman of letters and philosopher Alice Poirier: "A Alice Poirier, qui trouvera ici Khosröes et de ses compagnons, sympathique souvenir de Montherlant." (To Alice Poirier, who will find here Khosroes and his companions, kind regards from Montherlant.)
Fervent admirer and lover of Henri de Montherlant whom she nicknamed her "dear Rilet," Alice Poirier maintained, from 1927 to 1950, an important correspondence with the writer, letters to which the latter did not always respond but which he kept to nourish his work.
Thus, Alice Poirier served as model for the two principal female figures, Andrée Hacquebaut and Solange Dandillot, of the tetralogy cycle of "Jeunes filles."
Brilliant doctor of philosophy, she was equally close to Pierre Drieu la Rochelle and Jean Paulhan and drew from her epistolary correspondence with her great love, in 1955, a largely autobiographical novel entitled Récit de Grete in which Henri de Montherlant appeared under the character of Michel Cabrol.