Histoire d’un fait divers
One of 50 first copies on extra-fine vergé paper (no. 42) — the only deluxe paper.
Signed presentation inscription: “Pour Monsieur Max Ph. Delatte qui a tant fait pour le Prix Goncourt 1946; avec tous mes vœux de santé et de bonheur pour 1947. Hommage amical de J.J. Gautier, janvier 1947.”
At its session on 3 December, the Académie Goncourt exceptionally awarded two prizes: the 1940 prize to Francis Ambrière for Les Grandes Vacances, and that year’s prize to Jean-Jacques Gautier (1908–1986) for this Histoire d’un fait divers. The choice, in favor of a theater critic already well known at Le Figaro, also confirmed the standing of a publisher newly arrived among the major houses, René Julliard.
The novel is inspired by an actual case: a crime of passion that had made headlines. But far from the roman noir or the “hard” Simenon style, Gautier adopted a naturalist and psychological approach, attentive to the determinism of ordinary gestures and lives.
A fine copy.
From the libraries of Max Philippe Delatte (inscription) and Gérard Pouguet, with bookplate.