Théâtre VII

First collected edition.
Half red morocco binding with corners, spine with four raised bands, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns, covers and sunned spine preserved, top edge gilt, binding signed by Lucie Weill.
Handsome copy beautifully executed.
Signed autograph inscription from Tristan Bernard to his friend Carlo Rim and his wife Alice.
Provenance: from the library of the Provençal writer, caricaturist and filmmaker Carlo Rim who was notably the 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 resided at the Windsor hotel while his friend Carlo Rim offered in vain for him to stay at his house 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 through the intervention of 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.