Gloires de la France
This unique copy received treatment befitting its prestigious owner, being bound in a half-morocco binding with vellum-paper covers, while the other numbered copies were delivered only in a simpler binding, identical for the other 39 members of the Académie.
A collective work published in 1964 by the Collection Académique of the Académie française, Gloires de France brings together contributions from the forty members of the Académie, each paying tribute to a major figure in the nation’s history.
The volume opens with a foreword by Maurice Genevoix, perpetual secretary since October 1958, succeeding Georges Lecomte. In that role, he introduces this gallery of portraits, emphasizing the importance of memory and homage to great national figures. He held the position until his resignation in January 1974, becoming the first perpetual secretary to leave the office since Georges Duhamel in 1946.
Among the figures evoked are Saint Louis, Henri IV, Blaise Pascal, François-René de Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo and Maurice Barrès, as well as the “fantassin de 14,” which closes the volume: this text by Maurice Genevoix pays tribute to the soldiers of the First World War, particularly the anonymous infantrymen who fought in the trenches. It is the only text in Gloires de France not devoted to an individual figure, a tribute rich in humanity and sensitivity that perfectly illustrates the mission Genevoix had set himself: to bear witness for those who could not do so themselves, and to pass on their story to future generations.
A very fine copy.