La Mort d’Auguste
1 vol. (145 x 220 mm) of 251 p., [1] and 1 f. Publisher's boards, original dust jacket with flaps, in a half black box-calf slipcase-chemise, gilt title.
One of 70 “deluxe” copies (no. 57).
[with]:
First edition. First printing.
Signed presentation inscription: “à Claude Menguy, créateur des Mousquetaires. En toute amitié, Georges Simenon, 1985.”
“Mousquetaire” was the name Simenon liked to give to his bibliographers, Claude Menguy and Pierre Deligny.
Deligny, a professional proofreader, became interested in Simenon’s work from 1967 onward, tirelessly hunting for typographical errors in the texts, before turning with Menguy to work on his bio-bibliography. Menguy’s bibliography, published in 2004, remains today the standard reference work on Simenon’s œuvre.
The original typescript (on white paper; 168 leaves; corrections by the author in black ink, signed and dated: Epalinges, 17 March 1966) is preserved at the Fonds Simenon (Liège, Belgium). The yellow envelope bearing the author’s preparatory notes is titled “Les belles-sœurs,” a title crossed out in favor of La Mort du père and then La Mort d’Auguste.
A fine set.
Menguy, 227.