GALTIER-BOISSIÈRE (Jean). La Fleur au fusil. Paris... Lot 514

GALTIER-BOISSIÈRE (Jean). La Fleur au fusil. Paris : Les Bibliophiles du Crapouillot, Pierre Trémois, [1946]. - In-4, 280 x 225 : 170 pp, (3 ff. last blank), 16 plates, illustrated cover. Red half cloth, paper covered boards decorated with vertical tricolour stripes, smooth spine, gilt head, untrimmed, cover preserved, slipcase (Ateliers Laurenchet). Beautiful edition of this war story by the writer and journalist Jean Galtier-Boissière, illustrated with 39 colour compositions by Pierre FALKÉ, including one on the cover, one on the title, 21 in the text and 16 out of text. Edition at 748 copies. This one is one of the 700 on Marais crèvecœur, bearing a mailing from Galtier-Boissière to a certain Marie Thérèse, the family name has been erased, accompanied by a drawing by the author. UNIQUE EDITION, which Jacques Crépineau had bound by the Laurenchet workshops and enriched with the following items: - Photocopy of the preface by Jean-Claude Lamy, published in the Mercure de France edition in 1980; - Original signed portrait, drawn by Jean Oberlé, dated 1946 and representing Galtier-Boissière standing in profile, smoking a pipe, with this caption: "Le Commodore dit le Caïd ". This drawing is pasted on canson paper. - Autograph manuscript by Galtier-Boissière, unsigned, one page in-4, entitled Guerre. Apparently unpublished text on the 14-18 war: "The non-combatants could not reason like the combatants and understood nothing of anything. A wounded man, for a civilian, was a brave man. For the poilu, the wounded man was above all a pain in the ass. Woundedness is no proof of courage. A man can be wounded by putting on his breeches [sic] at the foliage, and by running away.» Corrections and erasures. - Very nice unsigned drawing, but certainly by Galtier-Boissière, representing a battlefield during the first war. - Autograph manuscript by Galtier-Boissière, unsigned, of 3 pages in-4, entitled Drieu. Beautiful text, apparently unpublished, on his meeting with Drieu La Rochelle: "I met Drieu La Rochelle for the first time in the courtyard of the Château de Vincennes, in 1917 [... After "breaking ranks" I approached him - I was a corporal transformed into a "brigadier" - and asked him: - Excuse me, marshal of the logis, would you be the author of Interrogations? - Yes, brigadier," he answered, very surprised, "but how can you know about this booklet which, as soon as it appeared in the NRF, was banned? When I had explained to him that I had read and liked this first work very much, he invited me to go and chat with him in his NCO room, where he was alone. I went back there every afternoon instead of going to the exercises and chores that were too much for me. Numerous erasures and corrections. - Unsigned watercolor drawing, most likely by Galtier-Boissière, depicting a battlefield during the First World War in the rain. On the reverse side is a pencil sketch. - Galtier-Boissière's autograph manuscript, unsigned, of 3 1/4 pages in-4, entitled Mes éditeurs. Very interesting text on his publisher Baudinière who published La Fleur au fusil in 1928: "Where our Baudinière proved to be of the utmost strength is when it came to evading the rights of authors. No one will probably believe me when I say that "La fleur au fusil" was my greatest sales success, that editions under different covers and at different prices followed one another for ten years and that, apart from the first year's payment, I never received a fifrelin from Mr. Baudinière." - L.A.S. from Jacques Porel (1893-1982), son of the actress Réjane and friend of Marcel Proust, dated December 20, 1958 and addressed to Galtier-Boissière, written on 2 pages in-4 . Porel thanks Galtier-Boissière for having included him in the Dictionnaire des Contemporains.