L'été

Published in the same year as the first edition.
Minor repairs to the spine.
Fine signed presentation inscription from Albert Camus to Irma Antonetto: "... pour lui rappeler nos promenades d'hiver et la fidèle pensée d'Albert Camus..."

Irma Antonetto (1920–1993) founded the Associazione Culturale Italiana in Turin, which she directed for forty-six years. The Association organised regular lecture series in several Italian cities, welcoming nearly four hundred writers, philosophers, scientists and artists, including numerous Nobel Prize laureates.

Camus proved an elusive guest. In October 1950, Gallimard declined an initial invitation on his behalf, as the writer was still convalescing. In May 1953, Camus replied personally that he was not yet able to commit, although he encouraged Antonetto to approach him again in the autumn. He eventually undertook a lecture tour for the ACI in late November 1954, speaking on the artist and his times in Turin on the 26th, Genoa on the 27th, and subsequently Milan and Rome, where he delivered his lecture on the 30th. Another presentation inscription from Camus to Irma Antonetto, in a copy of Lettres à un ami allemand formerly belonging to the Association's library, is now preserved in the library of the Università Cattolica in Milan.

The "promenades d'hiver" recalled in this moving inscription were probably more than a simple reminiscence of friendship. Inscribed at the beginning of a collection celebrating the light of the Mediterranean, these words also offer a deeply personal echo of "Retour à Tipasa", one of the volume's most significant essays, which contains one of Camus's most celebrated lines:

« Au milieu de l’hiver, j’apprenais enfin qu’il y avait en moi un été invincible. »