L’Étranger

In February 1942, Albert Camus delivered the final proofs of L’Étranger to Gallimard, who passed them to his printer nearby, at 45 rue de l’Abbé Grégoire in the sixth arrondissement. With paper scarce in wartime, the volume went into production on April 1. Some twenty days sufficed to produce the book, printing being completed on the 21st. It reached bookshops a month later, on May 19, 1942.

4,400 copies were printed: 400 for the press service, followed by 4,000 copies issued in seven print runs, of which only the first bears no edition statement — the statement being changed, as confirmed by the bon à tirer, every 500 copies. In addition to the first 900 copies, a further 3,500 were thus delivered and put on sale, all bearing the imprint “Chantenay, Imp. Paris, 21-4-42” at the foot of the last line of text, together with a “second,” “third,” “fourth,” “fifth,” “sixth,” “seventh” or “eighth edition” statement.

The novel met with only modest success, noticed, despite Gaston Gallimard’s efforts, by barely a dozen articles, and with a mixed critical reception according to Camus himself: “The reviews: mediocre in the free zone, excellent in Paris. In the end it all rests on misunderstandings. Best to close one’s ears and get on with work” (letter to Fréminville of September 6, 1942, quoted by Todd). The novel nevertheless sold well, and the first reprints followed in the autumn.

The earliest review copies, hors commerce, are identifiable by the following features: an “S.P.” mark on the title page and in the upper left corner of the back cover, and the absence of the price [25 francs] on the back of the wrapper.

Our copy is one of these. Albert Camus, then in Algiers, never saw them at the time. He had to wait more than six months, until a trip to Paris in January 1943, before finally holding “his” book in his hands. A single copy was seen by him, in Algiers in August 1942, brought from Paris by a friend, the physician Georges Elghozy. It is, to this day, the only copy known with certainty to have been seen by Camus in the year of its publication.

The rest is well known. L’Étranger is the third most widely read French-language novel in the world, after Le Petit Prince and Vingt Mille lieues sous les mers. After Saint-Exupéry’s work, it is the greatest publishing success of Éditions Gallimard. Above all, it is an exceptional and powerful novel, which today stands as a cornerstone of any collection of twentieth-century French literature: the rarity of first-printing copies makes it a precious item.

Press-service copies are the rarest and most sought after. They represent the finest state in which this landmark of French and world literature can be found.

Several were luxuriously bound relatively early, by Pierre-Lucien Martin (seven known copies) or Paul Bonet (two copies); these are naturally the most spectacular. Several others were bound later, by Miguet, Duhayon, Leroux and Alix.

A good copy, in excellent internal condition.

Todd, Albert Camus, une vie, Gallimard, 1996, pp. 587–588; Histoires d’un livre: L’Étranger (Imec, October 1990, pp. 7–8); L’Étranger, Essai et dossier par Bernard Pingaud, Gallimard, 2009.