Tristes tropiques

[A World on the Wane]
Plon, Paris 1956, 14x21cm, original wrappers with dust jacket.
Second issue published a few months after the first edition from October 1955. No grands papiers (deluxe copies) were issued.
This publicly and critically acclaimed masterpiece did not qualify as a novel and could not be awarded the prestigious Goncourt prize. The Goncourt jury even issued a statement expressing regret. Following this statement, the book was reprinted with a photographic dust jacket replacing the original cover drawing of a caduevo woman.
Handsome copy with its dust jacket, with small tears to margins.
Rare copy, signed and inscribed by Claude Levi-Strauss: “à Madame Lise Deharme, vêtue de pourpre comme un oiseau des tropiques, en très respectueux et admiratif hommage, Claude Lévi Strauss” (“To Madame Lise Deharme, dressed in purple like a tropical bird, very respectful and admiring homage, Claude Lévi Strauss”).
A precious and poetic tribute to the muse of the Surrealists, a close friend of Lévi-Strauss since their first meeting with André Breton in New York during the Second World War.
“The Surrealists and I have the same sources, the same origins […]. The Surrealists were attentive to all that appears as irrational and they tried to exploit it from an aesthetic point of view. It is the same material I use, but, instead of exploiting it to aesthetic ends, I seek to bring reason to this irrational” (Press interview, 1984).