Souvenirs d'Enfance : La Gloire de mon Père - Le Château de ma Mère

First edition on ordinary paper for the second volume; statement of 1000th edition on the first volume.

Minor foxing to the top edges.

A handsome set, housed in a white paper covered chemise and slipcase.

Exceptional presentation copies signed by Marcel Pagnol to Maurice Druon on each volume: "à Maurice Druon, écrivain véritable, hommage du romancier amateur, son ami, MarcelPagnol. 1958" [to Maurice Druon, true writer, homage from an amateur novelist, his friend, Marcel Pagnol] and "Cher Maurice, puisque ça te plaît, voilà la suite. Mais rassure-toi, il n'y en a plus qu'un ! affectueusement, Marcel." [Dear Maurice, since you liked it, here is the continuation. But not to worry, there is only one left after this! tenderly, Marcel]

"It was through Joseph Kessel that Marcel and Maurice first met. [...] Unlike certain representatives of the Parisian intelligentsia, Maurice Druon fully recognised the universal and timeless quality of Marcel Pagnol's writings: 'To communicate and to endure: the two aims of the art of writing,' he reminded him." (Nicolas Pagnol, Thierry Dehayes (ed.), Je te souhaite beaucoup d'ennemis comme moi. Correspondances intimes et littéraires, 2017, p. 252)

L'écrivain véritable (as Pagnol humorously styled him in this first inscription) was overwhelmed by La Gloire de mon père:

"Dear great Marcel,

It is a marvel! Rich, delightful, tender, French because Provençal, and Provençal because Latin! The warmth of the sun and the scent of the 'herbettes', the taste of olive oil, and the nostalgic drift of time. One reads it with an [southern] accent, and with a small tear at the corner of a smile. Memories in the great tradition. How human you are beneath such pleasant appearances! I feel, now, as though reading you has made me one of your childhood friends. And I await the sequel to La Gloire de mon père as one awaits a reward.       

I admire you and embrace you.      

 Maurice

P.S.: I shall never forget the testing of the hunting rifles against the lavatory door. I was howling with laughter, alone, at two in the morning, in the silence of the rue de Grenelle." (29 March 1958, ibid.)

Pagnol would refer back to this enthusiastic letter in the second inscription ("puisque ça te plaît, voilà la suite") and Druon equally praised the second volume of memoirs in a letter reading: "If I say less about Le Château de ma mère, it is only because I can do no more than repeat everything I wrote to you about the first volume. How glad I am that there is to be a third! These are the Bucolics of Aubagne. 'You alone know how to sing, shepherds of Provence!'" (ibid., 1 June 1958)