CHAR, René. Fureur et Mystère. Paris: Gallimard, 1948. Paris: Gallimard, 1948. Octavo, 264pp. First edition, one of ten copies on Hollande, the present numbered IV. Full red morocco, five raised bands, top-edge gilt, gilt lettering on spine; original wrappers bound in. René Char's own copy, noted in his hand in the colophon, "Mon exemplaire. R.C." Several poems are revised in Char’s hand, and various personal artifacts and notes are adjoined to the book. In a letter from Gaston Gallimard tipped into the book, he apologizes for having sent the book for consideration for the Prix Saint-Beuve without prior consultation with the author, and he justifies his actions by asserting that they asked to be sent the book and Gallimard could have hardly refused. Also tipped in is a holograph fair copy of the prose poem "Cette fumèe qui nous portait," signed by Char. Tipped in under it is a paper clipping reporting the new ski installations at Mount Char, in Macedonia, Yugoslavia. There is also black-and-white photograph of the plaque commemorating Char's years as a Resistance fighter. The original yellow paper band and the yellow leaflet prospectus of the book are tipped in on the first two front free endpapers. Two small landscape photographs, one black-and-white, one in color are laid in on page 245 – they pertain to the place referred to in the poem there -- both with notations in Char's hand on their versos. A blank postcard of a Provence landscape, with a quote by Char printed on the rear, is laid in at page 193. A postcard addressed to the poet in 1950 is laid in at page 131. Laid in at the beginning of Feuillets d' Hypnos is a letter from Pierre Zyngerman, who was also a Resistance fighter, and is the subject fragment 87 of the Feuillets. Char has corrected the footnote, which reads "Léon Saingermain" to "Pierre Zyngerman alias León Saingermain." A fine copy, nicely bound, of this extraordinary literary artifact. Char is unquestionably among the great poets of the Twentieth Century.

• Category: Extraordinary Books, Manuscripts & Art
• Keywords: first · French · poetry
• Language: Englisch
• Inventory number: 10868LB

Our price: USD 27,500.00