Le Petit Garçon
Signed presentation inscription: “pour Sylvie Genevoix, qui connaît mieux que beaucoup, le poids d'un père dans un vie d'enfant… avec mon amitié, Philippe. Le 15.X.90.”
With an autograph note signed on letterhead paper: “le 15/10. Sylvie: je m'aperçois, avec honte et stupéfaction, que je ne t'avais pas dédicacé mon livre !! Pardon ! Et à bientôt, Philippe,” along with a leaf of notes by Sylvie Genevoix.
The intimate and elegant inscription reveals a mutual understanding between the author and its recipient, centered on the book’s central theme: the figure of the father seen through a child’s eyes. Le Petit Garçon offers an intimate account of the Occupation as seen by a child. This “weight of a father in a child’s life” takes on particular resonance when one considers what Maurice Genevoix represented for his daughter: a literary authority, a national figure, but also a man deeply marked by war.
A good copy of fine provenance: Sylvie Genevoix, born in 1946 at the end of the war, became a discreet but influential figure in French publishing. After studying classical literature at the Sorbonne, she began her career at Plon as a press attaché for the 10/18 imprint, before coordinating the literary departments at Plon-Perrin-Julliard and becoming literary director at Julliard. From 1992 to 2005, she was literary director at Albin Michel, before being appointed to the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA), where she worked on the development of local television and the accessibility of programming for people with disabilities. She also chaired the mission for the French language and Francophonie.
She grew up at Les Vernelles, the family home acquired by her father Maurice Genevoix in 1927, where she developed a deep attachment to the Loire and to family memory, which she would later evoke in La maison de mon père (2001).