Émile Erckmann et Alexandre Chatrian / Louis-Philippe Kamm - L'Ami Fritz - 1937

ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN (Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian, dit)

L'Ami Fritz.

Strasbourg, Éditions de la Vie en Alsace, 1937.

1 volume in-4 (24.5 x 19 cm), emerald-green morocco (period binding), front board framed with gilt fillets and a large gilt motif at the center, rear board framed with blind fillets, ornate spine, gilded head, covers preserved, 228-[5] pages (complete). Wear to the binding (spine and hinges mainly). Good overall condition with a very fresh interior.

Numerous illustrations by Louis-Philippe Kamm printed in bistre.

Printed in a run of 1025 copies, this is one of 1000 on Lafuma pure rag (no. 297).

L'Ami Fritz is a novel by Erckmann-Chatrian, written in 1864, depicting the life of an Alsatian-Lorrain hero — or anti-hero — a hedonist in a small town in the 19th century. Single and bon vivant, Fritz Kobus has elevated the pleasures of the table and friendship to the status of a true art of living, and he intends never to yield to the imprisonment of marriage, even if his best friend the rabbi tries by every means to change his mind. Nothing does. But life will take care of it by sending him Süzel.

Erckmann-Chatrian is a pseudonym for two Lorraine-based novelists and playwrights who collaborated.
- Émile Erckmann (Phalsbourg 1822 – Lunéville 1899) is a Lorraine native from a prosperous Protestant merchant family.
- Alexandre Chatrian (Soldatenthal 1826 – Villemomble 1890) was born at the edge of Alsace, near Abreschviller where his father had run a glassworks before it failed.

Good copy.