CAMUS (Albert). Corrected proofs of L'Envers... Lot 72

CAMUS (Albert). Corrected proofs of L'Envers et l'endroit. January 12, 1956 and n.d. 60 f. printed large in-8 with autograph additions and corrections, and 1/2 f. in-8 autograph, all mounted on strong paper bound in an in-folio volume, garnet-red chagrin, smooth spine, black suede lining and endpapers, gilt head; spine a little rubbed. FOR THE PARTLY ORIGINAL EDITION PUBLISHED IN 1956 BY JEAN-JACQUES PAUVERT, WITH AN EXTENDED PREFACE. Limited to 100 copies, it was illustrated with the famous drypoint portrait of Albert Camus by Hans Bellmer. The original edition was published in 1937 by Edmond Charlot in Algiers, in the "Méditerranéennes" collection. AUTOGRAPHIC CORRECTIONS: located in the newly written preface as well as in the essays of the collection, they are of various kinds. Some are substantive amendments, for example: "I feel humility only in the face of simple lives ["simple" crossed out and corrected to "the poorest"] or the great adventures of the mind" (in the preface), or: "il l'exhortait à la confiance" corrected to "elle mettait en lui toute sa confiance" (in "L'Ironie"), or "Je respire tout le bonheur dont je suis capable" corrected to "je respire le seul bonheur dont je soit capable" (in "La Mort dans l'âme"). Several other corrections polish the style, for example: "Brice Parain often claims that this little book is ["est" crossed out and corrected to "figure"] the best I've written so far" (in the preface), or: "quand je vois la vie d'une grande fortune à Paris ["à Paris" crossed out and corrected to "sous le ciel de Paris"] (ibid.). A large number of autograph interventions enable Albert Camus to air out the text by working on punctuation; a few provide page layout indications, restore a title ("L'Envers et l'endroit") or remove the indication "(fragment)" for the title "La Mort dans l'âme", and correct a few typos. The folio, entirely in his handwriting, reads: "Don't forget the dedication page / To Jean GRENIER". A former teacher of Albert Camus at the Lycée d'Alger, Jean Grenier played a decisive role in guiding his pupil towards the arts, and remained one of Camus's dearest friends. COLLECTION OF 5 YOUTH ESSAYS written in 1935 and 1936, including "L'Ironie", "Entre oui et non", "La Mort dans l'âme", "Amour de vivre", and "L'Envers et l'endroit". These texts remained of great importance to Albert Camus, who saw in them a key to understanding himself and his work: "Rereading, after so many years, L'Envers et l'endroit, for this edition, I know instinctively, in front of certain pages, and despite the clumsiness, that this is it. This, that is to say, this old woman, a silent mother, poverty, the light on the olive trees of Italy, solitary and crowded love, everything that testifies, in my own eyes, to truth [...] A man's work is nothing other than this long journey to rediscover, through the detours of art, the two or three simple and great images on which the heart, for the first time, has opened." (preface). VOLUME WITH DRYPOINT PORTRAIT OF ALBERT CAMUS BY HANS BELLMER: - ORIGINAL ENGRAVING PLAQUE, inlaid in the first counterplate, - 2 PRINTS, one applied to the recto of the first flyleaf, the other enclosed. With 5 photographic portraits of Albert Camus (one mounted at the head, 4 enclosed), 2 in photographic prints and 3 printed.