Portrait d'un inconnu

The first edition, of which there were no deluxe copies, a Service de Presse (advance) copy.
Small lacks to head of spine, slight marginal tears to boards as well as two angular lacks to feet of boards due to the fragility of this poor-quality paper.
Exceptional full-page autograph inscription signed by Nathalie Sarraute to her dear friend the director, playwright and writer Simone Benmussa: "Pour Simone, qui ne sait peut-être pas bien - je n'ai jamais su le lui dire - combien compte pour moi sa sympathie pour mon travail, toute l'aide généreuse qu'elle m'apporte. De tout mon coeur, plein d'amitié et d'affection, je la remercie. Nathalie." (For Simone, who perhaps does not know well - I have never known how to tell her - how much her sympathy for my work means to me, all the generous help she gives me. With all my heart, full of friendship and affection, I thank her. Nathalie.)
Literary adviser to the Jean-Louis Barrault - Madeleine Renaud Company, then, in 1957, editor-in-chief of Cahiers Renaud-Barrault, Simone Benmussa also directed, from the Odéon theatre, the cultural service and the Cahiers of the Renaud-Barrault company. She adapted for the theatre works by her friend Nathalie Sarraute including "Enfance" in 1984 (with the recorded voice of Nathalie Sarraute) and "Pour un oui ou pour un non" in 1987, Pierre Klossowski, Jean Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, Samuel Beckett...