Théâtre I

First collected edition.
Half red morocco with corners, spine with four raised bands, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, binding signed Lucie Weill.
Handsome copy beautifully bound.
Autograph inscription signed by Tristan Bernard to his friend Carlo Rim: "A mon cher Carlo Rim que j'aime autant que s'il avait mon âge. Tristan Bernard" ["To my dear Carlo Rim whom I love as much as if he were my age. Tristan Bernard"]
Provenance: from the library of the Provençal writer, caricaturist and filmmaker Carlo Rim who was notably a friend of Fernandel, Raimu and Marcel Pagnol but also of André Salmon and Max Jacob.
During the Occupation, Tristan Bernard took refuge in Cannes and stayed at the Hotel Windsor while his friend Carlo Rim vainly offered him to stay at his place so that he would be safe from denunciation or arrest; to which Tristan Bernard, never short of witticisms, replied: "At my age, one no longer sleeps away from home!" adding: "Do you know that I appear in the Petit Larousse? One doesn't arrest someone who appears in the Petit Larousse"
He was nevertheless arrested in September 1943 as a Jew and interned with his wife at Drancy then released following intervention by Sacha Guitry and Arletty the following month.
His grandson François-René was also arrested as a resistance fighter and deported to Mauthausen where he died.