Marcel Prévost - Signé; L'HOMME VIERGE - 1929

Marcel Prévost, of the French Academy, The Virgin Man. Novel. Paris, Les Editions de France, 20 avenue Rapp, 1929. Copyright 1929 by Marcel Prévost.

Original edition. Limited print run of 1013 numbered copies, distributed as follows: 40 on Hollande paper (no. 1 to 40), 5 off-press on the same paper (no I to V), 100 on pure Lafuma laid vellum (no. 41 to 140), 18 off-press on the same paper (no VI to XXIII), 800 on alfa paper (no. 141 to 940), 45 off-press on the same paper (no. XXIV to LXVIII).

This copy is no. XV — one of the 5 off-press copies on Hollande paper, printed especially and personally for Mr. Jacques Meyer, bearing the author’s handwritten signature, in accordance with the notes in the justification page.

Page of the half-title adorned with an autograph inscription signed by Marcel Prévost: "to Mr. Jacques Meyer, in homage", followed by the author’s signature. This is indeed an original manuscript autograph on the copy, and not a printed facsimile.

Jacques Meyer (1895-1987), alum of the École normale, lieutenant in the 329th Infantry Regiment, author of La Biffe (Albin Michel, 1928, with a preface by Henry Malherbe) and La Guerre, Mon Vieux. (1932), winner of several literary prizes (Broquette-Go nin Prize, General Muteau Prize, Pierre de Régnier Prize), secretary-general of Louis-Dreyfus & Co and then of L'Intransigeant — a well-known figure in Parisian literary and journalistic life of the 1920s-1930s.

Leather binding, blue half-calf with corner pieces of the period, marble boards in blue/black, gilded top edge, marbled endpapers. Corners slightly rubbed, spine satisfactory. Interior fresh, 343 pages.

Rare item: nominative off-press copy on premium paper, with a signed autograph inscription to a recipient well identified in French literary life.