Terre des hommes

First edition, one of the press copies.

Anthracite half-morocco binding, spine with five raised bands, title and author lettered in palladium, boards in grey and black patterned paper, grey paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers bound in, traces of adhesive on the verso of the front wrapper, two small restorations to the inner margin of the rear wrapper, top edge in palladium, binding signed by Boichot.

Presentation copy, inscribed and signed by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to Antoinette de Bergevin under her pen name: "Pour madame Colette Yver en hommage respectueux Antoine de Saint-Exupéry."

"Although the name of the French writer Colette Yver (1874-1953) has not endured the test of time, her literary contribution is no less compelling. Well known at the turn of the twentieth century, she published more than fifty works, including novels, translations of literary works and biographies, essays, and hagiographies. She also contributed to several periodicals such as "L'Écho de Paris," "Les Cahiers du Plateau d'Assy", and "Lectures pour tous". Her novel "Princesses de sciences" was awarded the 1907 Vie heureuse award, forerunner of the prix Fémina, on whose jury she sat from 1913 to 1951. In 1917, she also became a member of the Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen, before being made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1931.

Colette Yver is among the small number of women journalists who covered the First World War by travelling to the front, in the same vein as Andrée Viollis and Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette)" (Isabelle Lévesque, "Colette Yver au front : à travers l’œil sensible d'une écrivaine-reporter")