Lady L.
Signed presentation inscription: “Au boss et Hélène Hoppenot, avec mon affection - cette très nouvelle mouture. Romain Gary.”
Gary’s first book written directly in English, it was translated four years after its publication by Gary himself, not without considerably reworking it, and taking his time doing so: in La nuit sera calme (p. 253), he would say that it took him six weeks to write Lady L. in English, and nine months in French! He had done extensive research for the English version and, likely following the “triumph” of Lady L. in English, wanted to perfect his French text. Hence this “very new version” offered to the Hoppenots, his “boss” at the United Nations. The ambassador had already taken Gary with him to Bern in 1951, before being appointed, in the spring of 1952, ambassador and head of the French delegation to the UN. Henri Hoppenot then brought Romain Gary into his team, as secretary, consul and spokesman. A close friendship, formed already in Bern, would then develop.
An exceptional provenance on one of Gary’s most charming — and often overlooked — books.