PEGUY, Charles. Lot n° 1566

Selected works. 1900-1910. Paris, Bernard Grasset, [1911]. In-12 [184 x 115] of (4) ff, 412 pp, (2) ff, 1 portrait : blue half-maroquin with corners, gilt fillets, spine with ornate nerves, gilt head, untrimmed, cover and spine kept (Creuzevault). First collective edition, decorated with a portrait of the author by Pierre Laurens, reproduced in frontispiece. It gathers texts chosen by Péguy himself, written in the first ten years of the century. They illustrate the evolution of his thought and his philosophy, according to his project to make known to the general public the whole of his work. Autograph letter signed to a childhood friend: Monday August 7, 1911 // copy for Doctor Emile Coudert // Here is your copy, // my dear Coudert, // in memory of our young years // Charles Péguy The copy is enriched by an autograph letter signed and addressed to Émile Coudert, August 23, 1914. Péguy indicates the address to which one can write to him and gives news from the front: "Since Tuesday I have been in command of a platoon of 120 men in a large abandoned farm. For a week intermittent cannonades at twenty/twenty-five kilometers, but no news." Two weeks later, on September 5, 1914, Péguy was killed on the front. (Autograph letter signed, 2 pages in-12, envelope preserved.) Hinges restored; that of the second cover is slightly cracked.