Signed books and autograph signatures from great writers, poets, philosophers from 16th to 21st century

First edition, of which no copies were issued on deluxe paper.

Publisher’s binding in full black cloth, smooth spine, a fine copy complete with its illustrated dust jacket.

Illustrations.

Inscribed and signed by Pierre Jakez Hélias to friends named Fanny and André.

First edition, on ordinary paper, of the French translation.
A small tear restored at the foot of the spine, a pleasing copy.
Letter-preface by Jean Cocteau, preface by Somerset Maugham.
Illustrated cover with a portrait of the Aga Khan by Kees Van Dongen, with iconography.

Rare and precious signed autograph presentation from the Aga Khan to Madame Avrillier.

 

First edition, one of the review copies.

Some light foxing to the spine and along the edges of the covers, a pleasing copy given the poor quality of the paper.

Inscribed by Raymond Queneau to Dominique Aury.

First edition on ordinary paper.

A moving and appealing copy.

Fine signed autograph presentation inscription from Dominique de Roux to his brother: "Pour mon cher Xavier père et maître des circonvolutions de ce récit. Et sans qui la vie n'aurait aucun sens. Affection fraternelle. Dominique."

First edition on ordinary paper.

Small pale dampstains on the spine.

Inscribed, signed and dated by Maurice Genevoix to Nicole and Philippe Derez.

« Hierbei sollst du meiner gedenken, denn alles habe ich ernstlich gemeint. R. W. »
[At this you shall remember me, for I have meant everything seriously].

Autograph manuscript signed by the painter and writer Jacques-Émile Blanche, entitled « Serge de Diaghileff ». Five leaves written in black ink, with numerous corrections in blue. Autograph foliation in black ink, later foliation in blue pencil. Leaf 4, originally in two parts, was joined with a strip of adhesive affixed to the verso.

Crossed-out passages and corrections.

A very fine funeral oration by Jacques-Émile Blanche for his friend Serge Diaghilev, director of the celebrated Ballets Russes.
The painter and writer Jacques-Émile Blanche pays tribute to the genius of Serge Diaghilev, shortly after his death in Venice in 1929. Chosen as a « godfather » to the Ballets Russes, the painter followed closely the choreographer’s work as a regenerator of the performing arts and applauded Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps. He also produced numerous portraits of the Ballets Russes dancers, which he presented at the Venice Biennale in 1912.
At the beginning of the century, Diaghilev’s company, the « Ballets Russes », had dazzled audiences across Europe with a rich and vigorous art which, moving from one new form to another, remained at the avant-garde for twenty years. The painter recalls his first encounter with Diaghilev, a figure of undeniable charm: « j'éprouvai qu'on ne pouvait lui résister. Son autorité, ses caprices d'enfant gâté, on les subissait, tant son intelligence éclatait dans ses paroles d'adolescent. Il ressemblait, alors, assuraient ses compatriotes, au Tzar Alexandre Ier ». He evokes the impresario’s troubled existence and his dazzling triumphs with the Ballets Russes: « Eh quoi ! vingt ans d'expériences, vingt ans d'incomparables spectacles - et la perfection d'une technique de plus en plus déconcertante, ne nous conseilla-t-il pas d'accorder crédit illimité à notre cher ami, le plus artiste des hommes - et somme toute, le plus sûr de soi-même, malgré l'extravagance, le paradoxe de la vie qu'il menait et qu'il imposait à sa troupe ? ».
Blanche highlights Diaghilev’s taste for French culture, which he shared with his friends and collaborators. This passion, inherited from Russian aristocratic circles, made him « Le plus parisien des cosmopolites, croyant au prestige de Paris comme un boulevardier du second Empire ». We also learn of Diaghilev’s unrealized plan to travel to Moscow and stage ballets in the young USSR, then regarded as a land of political and artistic avant-garde. The letter closes with a moving evocation of Venice, where Diaghilev passed away on 19 August 1929:
« voici qu'un funèbre cortège de gondoles accompagne sur la lagune torride [...] les restes de notre cher camarade. Il est bien - puisqu'il devait nous quitter - qu'il fermât les yeux sur la cité du Sang, de la volupté et de la Mort ».

A remarkable panegyric to the creator and impresario Serge de Diaghilev by Jacques-Émile Blanche, his loyal friend and portraitist of the Ballets Russes.

First collected edition of which there were no grand papier (deluxe) copies, an advance (service de presse) copy.
A nice copy despite a tiny tear to foot of upper cover.
Rare autograph inscription signed by Robert Desnos to Pierre Berger: " ces feuilles déjà bien vieilles..."

First edition, a numbered copy on alfa du Marais paper, this one not included in the justification.
Handsome autograph inscription signed and dated by Aimé Césaire to Raymond Queneau: “Très sympathique hommage de ces bucoliques de sang et de soleil... [a very affectionate homage of these bucolics of blood and sunshine...]”
Covers and spine slightly sunned at edges (but not seriously).

First edition printed in 51 copies numbered and initialled by the author on Whatman.
Playful and striking signed presentation inscription from Jean Ajalbert to Henry Fèvre: "... ex-écrevisse de rempart, ces vers de l'auteur des bastions..."
Illustrated with an original lithograph by Paul Signac as frontispiece.
Minor spots on the lower cover, a rare and handsome copy.

First edition, with no mention of deluxe paper copies.
Precious signed autograph inscription from Octave Mirbeau to his friend Jules Renard.
Blue pencil mark by Jules Renard on the front cover.
Our copy is further enriched with Jules Renard's celebrated ex-libris, designed and engraved by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

First edition of the French translation. No grands papiers (deluxe copies) were printed.
Some loss of plastic film on the spine, two light damp-stains on the upper and lower edges.
Signed and dated by Andy Warhol with an original drawing on three pages: verso of the first cover, endpaper and title page.

Second edition, first for some parts, one of 100 copies on vergé blanc paper.
Contemporary Bradel half dark-green cloth over marbled paper boards, the spine with gilt fleuron, date and double gilt fillets at foot, upper corners rubbed, covers preserved.

An attractive copy in a pleasant binding.
Handsome autograph inscription from Paul Verlaine to Alice Densmore.

First edition, one of 25 copies on handmade laid paper, numbered and justified by the publisher, the only deluxe issue.
 
Bradel binding in half chocolate-brown morocco with corners, smooth spine, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, illustrated wrappers by Manuel Orazi and backstrip preserved.
Work illustrated with 136 black and colour drawings, in- and out-of-text, by Georges Bottini.
 
Bookplate mounted.
 
Our copy is enriched with a full-page original drawing, signed by Georges Bottini and heightened in black ink, depicting Jacques Beaudarmon wearing a bowler hat and conversing with the « môme ». This drawing appears as a woodcut illustration on page 133.
 
The drawing is inscribed by Georges Bottini to M. Casanove « en grande sympathie ».
 
Very rare deluxe copy of Jean Lorrain’s masterpiece.

New edition.
Contemporary binding in half green shagreen, spine in four compartments set with gilt stippling, gilt fillets and gilt fleurons in the corner pieces, multiple blind tooled frames on the boards, white iridescent paper endpapers, all edges gilt.
Some leaves shorter in the bottom margin.

Handwritten inscription signed by George Sand on the first endpaper: “à mon bon ami Edmond Plauchut. G. Sand".

Today the only outsider to the family buried in the cemetery of the Nohant house, is Lucien-Joseph-Edmond Plau
chut (1824-1909) who began an epistolary relationship with George Sand in the autumn of 1848 when he was a voluntary expatriate after the fall of the Republic. Leaving for Singapore, he was shipwrecked off the coast of the Cape Verde Islands and was able to save only one cassette containing Sand's letters that he had preciously bound. These missives were his salvation: they allowed him to be collected, fed and laundered by a rich Portuguese admirer of the Lady of Nohant, Francisco Cardozzo de Mello.

After several journeys toward the Far East, and several exotic presents sent to his distant and yet so close friend, Plauchut finally met George Sand in
1861. In 1870, she paid a vibrant tribute to him in the preface of her novel Malgrétout.

Despite everything, she recounts the shipwreck of which he was a victim and expresses with emotion her friendship for this courageous friend. Plauchut, much loved by the Sand family – and particularly George's granddaughters who nicknamed him Uncle Plauchemar – was an integral part until his death in January 1909.

The handwritten signed inscriptions on La Mare au Diable are very rare, this one is from a superb provenance.

First edition with 46 illustrations by Harry Furniss.
Publisher's binding over flexible paper boards, discreet and light repairs on the
joints, all edges gilt.
Autograph inscription dated and signed by Lewis Carroll to Mrs Cole.

First edition of the French translation, for which no deluxe copies were issued.
Precious autograph presentation inscription signed by Italo Calvino to his friend, the Argentine photographer José María “Pepe” Fernández.
Our copy is further enriched with an original photograph by Pepe Fernández depicting Italo Calvino leaning on a stack of books.
Signed by the photographer at the foot of the image, with handwritten notes and Pepe Fernández’s stamp on the verso.
Double autograph signature of Pepe Fernández on the front endpaper and the title page as presentation inscriptions, spine faded.

First edition on ordinary paper, with no mention of large paper copies.

Occasional light spotting, a small angular lack to half-title.
Elegant pastiche marbled paper Bradel binding by Thomas Boichot, brown morocco title label, covers preserved.
Handsome autograph inscription signed by the author: "A Guy de Maupassant, son ami [For Guy de Maupassant, his friend]."

First edition on ordinary paper.

A small nick on the spine, slightly split at the foot.
Precious signed autograph inscription from Jean Giraudoux to André Gide: "... avec gratitude..."

First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on alfa, the only grands papiers (deluxe copies) after 5 pur-fil paper.

Bound in half green morocco, paste paper boards, marbled paper endpapers, wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, contemporary binding signed Lucie Weill.
Skilful and discreet repair to the top of a joint.
Illustrated with 6 vignettes by André Derain.

Handsome inscription signed by Antonin Artaud: “à Alice & à Carlo Rim que j'aime beaucoup parce que j'aime dans la vie tout ce qui est nature, franc et sans fard et la vie d'Héliogabale aussi est franche et sans fard et dans la ligne de la grande Nature. Antonin Artaud leur ami.” (“To Alice & Carlo Rim whom I love very much because I love in life all that is nature, frank and unvarnished and the life of Elagabalus is also frank and unvarnished and in line with the great Nature. Antonin Artaud their friend.”)

First edition, one of the review copies.

Spine slightly sunned, minor marginal spots on the front cover.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Maurice de Vlaminck to his Montmartre friend Pierre Mac Orlan: "... son vieux copain..."

First edition printed on alfa paper.

A small tear at the foot of one joint discreetly restored, a pleasant copy.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Philippe Soupault to René Crevel in pencil.

Edition from the year of the original, stating 78th thousand.
Copy complete with its wraparound band announcing the award of the 1965 Prix Renaudot.
A minute tear without consequence at the foot of one joint.

Autograph inscription signed by Georges Perec to Jean Berthou and his wife.

First edition, one of 500 numbered copies on Featherweight, the only deluxe issue.
Small loss and foxing to the headcap and upper edge, a crease and minor tears to the front cover, endpapers slightly toned without consequence.
Exceptional signed autograph presentation from Benjamin Fondane: « A Jacques Prévert cordialement. B. Fondane. Paris / 3 / 33. »

First edition on ordinary paper.

Paper slightly toned as usual, with a few insignificant spots on the edges.

Amusing and fine signed autograph presentation inscription from René Fallet to his friend Jean-Jacques Vaure; "Pour J.J. Vaure chantre mou d'Argenteuil 13 amicalemebt. René Fallet 16/11/51. Note de l'auteur : celui qui acceptera qu'on lui prête ce livre est un salaud. Pas tant que Vaure, mais presque."

First edition, one of 20 deluxe copies on Holland paper, the only large-paper issue, reimposed in octavo format (the ordinary edition being in duodecimo).

Cf. Vicaire III, 305-306. Carteret I, 222.

Contemporary full stiff ivory vellum, smooth spine, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

Fine copy.

Bibliographers mention 25 copies, which seems difficult to account for, as the limitation is clearly stated on the verso of the half-title. This procedure was customary for the author (Les Six aventures, 1857, was issued in the same dual printing).

Precious presentation copy inscribed and signed by Maxime Du Camp to the celebrated critic Jules Janin (1804–1874), who later affixed his engraved bookplate to the front endpapers.

Second edition only one month after the first edition.
Spine lightly wrinkled, small signs of folding in the margins of the boards, a light mark on the second board.

Claude Couffon, a French specialist and translator of the major Spanish-speaking writers of the second half of the 20th century, translated Chronicle of a Death Foretold a few years later.
On the last page, below the colophon, Gabriel García Márquez specified an address in Barcelona, that of his famous literary agent for Spain: “c/o Agencia Carmen Ballcells Urgel 241, Barcelona, 11.”

Rightly considered as one of the most important works op the Spanish language, the novel by García Márquez, however, had difficult beginnings after a first refusal by the avant-garde Barcelona publisher Seix Barral: “This novel will not be successful [...], this novel is useless.”
García Márquez sent it from Mexico to the Argentinian publisher Francisco Porrúa who immediately perceived the power of this unknown Colombian writer: “It wasn't a question of getting to the end to find out if the novel could be published. The publication was already decided from the first line, in the first paragraph. I simply understood what any sensible publisher would have understood: that it was an exceptional work.”
Finished printing in May 1967, Cien Años de Soledad appeared in bookshops in June with 8,000 copies selling out in a few days. The second print on 30 June will have the same success, as will the editions that follow week after week. More than half a million copies were sold in three years.

Several copies were later inscribed by Gabriel García Márquez who over the years has become one of the most famous South American writers, translated into 25 languages. However, contemporary autograph inscriptions on the first prints are extremely rare, even more so to one of his French translators who will contribute largely to his international renown.

First edition.
Half beige cloth Bradel binding, flat spine, date at foot, black shagreen title-piece skillfully restored, marbled paper boards, contemporary binding.
Inscribed by Guy de Maupassant to his friend the writer Catulle Mendès.
A fine copy, attractively bound.
Provenance: from the library of Arthur Christian with his bookplates on the front pastedown.

Autograph letter from George Sand to Gustave Flaubert dated December 21, 1867, 8 pages on two lined leaves. Published in Sand's Correspondance, XX, pp. 642-645.
From one of the finest literary correspondences of the century, this letter written on Christmas Eve 1867 is a sublime testament to the frank friendship between George Sand, the “old troubadour”, and Gustave Flaubert, christened “cul de plomb” [leaden ass] after declining his invitation to Nohant to complete L'Éducation sentimentale.

Despite their seventeen year-age gap, opposing temperaments and divergent outlooks on life, the reader is gripped by the tenderness and astonishing verve of George Sand's long confession to Flaubert. At the height of her literary fame and enjoying her theater in Nohant, Sand talks at length about politics, their separation, their conception of the writer's work, and life itself.

In this “stream-of-consciousness” letter, Sand naturally and freely sets down on paper eight pages of conversations with Flaubert who made only too rare and brief appearances in Nohant: “But how I chat with you! Do you find all this amusing? I'd like a letter to replace one of our suppers, which I too miss, and which would be so good here with you, if you weren't a cul de plomb [leaden ass] who won't let yourself be dragged along, to life for life's sake”, whereas Flaubert's motto, then busy writing L'Éducation sentimentale, was rather art for art's sake. In the end of 1867, Sand grieved the death of an “almost brother”, François Rollinat, which Sand appeased with letters to Flaubert and lively evenings at Nohant: “This is how I've been living for the last 15 days since I stopped working [...] Ah'! [...] Ah! when you're on vacation, work, logic and reason seem like strange swings.” Sand was quick to criticize him for working tirelessly in his robe, “the enemy of freedom”, while she was running up and down mountains and valleys, from Cannes to Normandy, even to Flaubert's own home, which she had visited in September. On this occasion, Sand had happily reread Salammbô, where she picked up a few lines for her latest novel, Mademoiselle Merquem.

Their literary and virile friendship, similar to Rollinat's, defied the old guard of literati who declared the existence of a “sincere affair” between man and woman utterly impossible. Sand, who has been described in turn as a lesbian, a nymphomaniac, and made famous for her resounding and varied love affairs, began a long and intense correspondence with Flaubert, for whom she was a mother and an old friend. She called herself in their letters “old troubadour” or “old horse” and no longer even considered herself a woman, but a quasi-man, recalling her youthful cross-dressing and formidable contempt for gender norms. To Flaubert had compared the female writers as Amazons denying their femininity: “To better shoot with the bow, they crushed their nipples”, Sand replied in this letter: “I don't share your idea that you have to do away with the breast to shoot with the bow. I have a completely opposite belief for my own use, which I think is good for many others, probably for the majority”. A warrior, yes, but a peaceful warrior, Sand willingly adopted the customs of a world of misogynistic intellectuals, while remaining true to herself: “I believe that the artist should live in one's nature as much as possible. To the man who loves struggle, war; to the man who loves women, love; to the old man who, like me, loves nature, travel and flowers, rocks, great landscapes, children too, family, everything that moves, everything that fights moral anemia,” she then adds. A fine evocation of her “green period”, this passage marks the time of Sand's country novels, when, mellowed by the years, she gave herself over entirely to contemplation to write François le Champi, La Mare au diable and La Petite Fadette. But her love of nature didn't stop her from conquering language over men, even though at 63 she was still “scandalizing the inscandalizable”, according to the Goncourt brothers.

Faithful to her socialist ideals, she openly criticizes Adolphe Thiers in the letter: “Étroniforme [shithead] is the sublime word that classifies this species of merdoïde [shitty] vegetation [...] Yes, you'll do well to dissect this balloon-like soul and this cobweb-like talent!” As the leader of the liberal opposition to Napoleon III, Thiers had just delivered a speech in defense of the Papal States, turning his back on Garibaldi, future father of unified Italy. Everyone in Sand's home of Nohant had had a good laugh at Flaubert's logorrhea, sent three days earlier: “Let us roar against Monsieur Thiers! Can one see a more triumphant imbecile, a more abject scoundrel, a more etroniform [shit-like] bourgeois!” he wrote. Sand echoed his sentiments: “Maurice [Sand] finds your letter so beautiful [...] He won't forget étroniforme, which charms him, étronoïde, étronifère”. Against this backdrop of intense political debates, Sand also warned Flaubert, who risked jeopardizing his novel by including his criticism of Thiers in L'Éducation sentimentale: “Unfortunately when your book arrives, [Thiers] may be over and not very dangerous, for such men leave nothing behind. But perhaps he will also be in power. You can expect anything. Then the lesson will be a good one.”

Their shared socialist and anti-clericalist opinions did not prevent them from holding widely divergent views on the essence of the novel and the work of the writer: “the artist is an instrument which everything must play before it plays others. But all this is perhaps not applicable to a mind of your kind, which has acquired a great deal and only has to digest". Flaubert's detachment, his open cynicism for his characters, like a Madame Bovary harshly judged by the narrator, differed sharply from Sand's emotional and personal relationship to writing. Flaubert's almost schizophrenic attitude readily confused her and made her fear for her sanity: “I would insist on only one point, and that is that physical being is necessary to moral being, and that I fear for you one day or another a deterioration of health that would force you to suspend your work and let it cool down.” Flaubert never betrays or reveals himself through his novels, unlike Sand, who throws herself body and soul into her writing: “I believe that art needs a palette always overflowing with soft or violent tones, depending on the subject of the painting”.

While Flaubert, hard-working and full of literary anxieties, was secluded in Croisset, Sand enjoyed her freedom at Nohant, a place of family bliss but also of egalitarian living, where she “[had] fun to the point of exhaustion”. She willingly swapped tête-à-tête sessions with the inkwell for her little theater in Nohant: “These plays last until 2 a.m. and we're crazy when we get out. We eat until 5 am. There are performances twice a week, and the rest of the time, we do stuff, and the play (which) goes on with the same characters, going through the most unheard-of adventures. The audience consists of 8 or 10 young people, my three grand-nephews and the sons of my old friends. They're passionate to the point of screaming”. Persevering, she once again urged her “leaden ass” Flaubert to come out of his voluntary confinement: “I'm sure you'd have a wonderful time too, for there's a splendid verve and carelessness in these improvisations, and the characters sculpted by Maurice seem to be alive, with a burlesque life, at once real and impossible; it's like a dream.” Two years later, Flaubert would make a sensational entrance at Nohant, and Sand would leave “aching” after days of partying. During his memorable stay at Sand's he read his Saint-Antoine aloud in its entirety and danced the cachucha dressed as a woman!

Exceptional pages of George Sand in spiritual communion with her illustrious colleague; Flaubert was one of the few to whom she spoke so freely, crudely, but tenderly, sealing in words her deep friendship with the “great artist [...] among the few who are men” (letter to Armand Barbès, 12 October 1867).

Our letter is housed in a half-black morocco folder, with marbled paper boards, facing pastedown in black lambskin felt, Plexiglas protecting the letter, black morocco-lined slipcase, marbled paper boards, signed P. Goy & C. Vilaine.

First edition on ordinary paper.
Handsome, fine autograph inscription signed by Albert Camus : "à Albert Béguin qui trouvera ici les raisons de mes désaccords avec Esprit, avec mon bien cordial souvenir...[to Albert Bégiun who will find here the reasons for my disagreements with the Spirit, in friendly remembrance…]"
A little light spotting primarily to upper cover and ffep.
Retaining its advertising notice, entitled "Lettres sur la révolte".

First edition, one of the review copies.
Preface by Raymond Queneau.
Rare and appealing copy.

Rare signed autograph presentation from Boris Vian to Marc Bernard.

First edition.
Small corner losses to the boards, clean and appealing interior condition.
Bradel binding in full combed paper, smooth spine with a black morocco label lettered lengthwise, binding signed by Thomas Boichot.

Rare signed autograph inscription by Ferdinand de Lesseps "à mon ami 'chéri' Rousseau".
 

First edition on ordinary paper.

Work illustrated with wood engravings by Henri Jadoux.

A pleasing copy.

Autograph inscription signed by Sacha Guitry in pencil to Henry Sorensen.

First edition, one of 40 numbered copies, the only copies printed on deluxe paper.

A handsome and scarce copy.

Illustrated with full-page color drawings by André François.

Pencil signature by Vincent Pachès at the colophon.

First edition, one of 950 copies on Vélin Vidalon signed by André Marchand, the only printing following 49 copies on Vélin d'Arches.

Bound in black morocco-backed boards with corners, smooth spine, gilt fillet borders on cat's eye paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, all edges gilt. Slipcase edged in black morocco, marbled paper panels. Binding signed by D. Saporito.

Illustrated with 50 splendid original lithographs by André Marchand, printed by Mourlot.

Featuring previously unpublished texts by Georges Spyridaki, René Lacôte, Georges Hugnet, Gabriel Audisio, Raymond Queneau, David Herbert Lawrence, Pierre Emmanuel, Luc Decaunes, Léon-Marie Brest, Jean Grenier, Antonio Machado, Marie Mauron, Paul Eluard...

A handsome and finely bound copy.

First edition, one of 300 numbered copies signed and justified by Frans de Geetere, reserved for the friends of La Marie-Jeanne, the only copies printed on deluxe paper.
As stated in the limitation, our copy is complete with a manuscript leaf from the work and an original drawing by the author depicting two reclining nude women, signed by him.
A desirable copy, complete with its rare promotional wraparound band: "le livre qu'aucun éditeur n'a osé publier".

The first edition, first printing, numbered in the press, with only 23 large paper copies on Hollande paper.
With a frontispiece portrait of Apollinaire by Picasso.
Discreet restorations to spine.

With a chemise of half red morocco over paper boards by Boichot, spine in six compartments, date to foot of spine, identical paper slipcase with red morocco edging.

 
Rare autograph inscription signed by Guillaume Apollinaire: “for Henri Ghéon whose poetry I am fond of, Guillaume Apollinaire”.
This copy also with five manuscript corrections by Apollinaire on pages 71, 77, 92, 110 and 189.
A good copy with a rare autograph inscription by the poet.

An autograph quatrain in black ink has been mounted on the verso of the frontispiece.

First edition with all first printing  features, one of the press copies.

Exceptional presentation copy inscribed by the author to the famous singer Yvette Guilbert, to whom Céline himself sang and offered one of his scandalous compositions, “Katika la putain,” [Katika the Whore] later renamed “À Nœud coulant” [With a Slipknot"] "A madame Yvette Guilbert en témoignage de ma profonde admiration. LFCéline.” 

Beneath Céline's inscription, the actor Fabrice Luchini added: “A Yvette Guilbert in memoriam. FLuchini” ; and on the half-title, actor Jean-François Balmer wrote in turn: “Merci en bon voyage. JFBalmer.”

With pasted-in entry tickets to their respective performances of Voyage au bout de la nuit at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées for Luchini, and at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre for Balmer.

First edition, one of 34 copies printed on Japan paper, this copy being one of 5 not-for-sale copies printed for presentation, a deluxe issue following the unique copy on Japan Imperial.

Illustrated with 9 original wood engravings by Maurice Savin.

Minor loss at foot of spine, occasional light spotting on some deckle edges, a handsome copy with full margins.

As stated in the colophon, our copy includes the additional suite of wood engravings printed on antique Japan paper.

Inscribed and signed by André Spire to Claude Aveline, for whom this copy was printed