GARY (Romain). Lot n° 40

Les Mangeurs d'étoiles. Paris, Gallimard, 1966. In-8, iridescent purple box with bronze highlights, two open vertical bands in the center of the first board, revealing the cover and encircled by the author and the title in electric blue œser on mosaic purple box pieces, identical bands in stamped violet box mosaic on the second board overlapped with the date in œser on pieces of violet box mosaic, smooth mute spine, edge to edge lining in the same iridescent violet box, black and gold mottled silk endpapers, untrimmed, cover and spine, folder and slipcase in the same iridescent violet box (Devauchelle) French first edition. Copy n°1, one of the 22 first copies on vellum of Hollande. Les Mangeurs d'étoiles is the first part of La Comédie américaine, completed in 1969 by Adieu Gary Cooper (next batch). These two novels were first published in English: the first in 1961 as The Talent Scout and the second in 1965 as The Ski Bum. Like Lady L. three years earlier, the French translation was prepared by Jean Rosenthal with the author's assistance. A very nice copy in a stunning Devauchelle binding.