La Côte sauvage
Signed presentation inscription: “Pour vous, chère Madeleine, près de qui j'ai parcouru des [côtes] moins [sauvage]s, ce livre dont les personnages n'ont pas “peur de souffrir” puisque c'est un peu le prix de l'amour ; en espérant que vous ne refusez pas de l'aimer - puisque c'est un peu le prix de ma joie, Jean-René Huguenin.”
The only novel Jean-René Huguenin published in his lifetime, La Côte sauvage appeared in September 1960 to immediate critical acclaim. Its author, then only twenty-five, revealed a startling literary maturity, a clear and penetrating style, and a voice already remarkably assured.
The novel explores shattered adolescence and romantic disillusionment, torn between despairing lucidity and a longing for the absolute. Huguenin, who died tragically in a car accident in September 1962, became through this single book a mythic figure of French literature.
A rare copy enriched with a signed presentation inscription: the dedication — of remarkable beauty — is addressed to Madeleine Mérignac, the future wife of Maurice Druon. It attests to a close friendship, marked by literary complicity and a shared sensibility.
Born in Spain into a family of peasant stock from the Southwest of France, Madeleine Mérignac was the daughter of an officer of the Légion d’honneur who died prematurely. Raised strictly, she received a demanding education at the Maison d’éducation des Demoiselles de la Légion d’honneur before training as a secretary at Pigier. Independent and serious-minded, she lived modestly on the rue de Grenelle, a few streets from Maurice Druon.
She met Druon at the publication of Les Grandes Familles and became his secretary, typing his manuscripts with remarkable orthographic and syntactic precision. Present at every stage of the writing of Les Rois maudits, she became a discreet but constant collaborator, her name appearing from volume I to volume VI — a distinction she shared only with Pierre de Lacretelle and Georges Kessel. Matthieu Galey, also part of Druon’s “workshop” and the principal editor of his Alexandre le Grand in 1958, brought her into the Seuil proofreading team at the end of the editorial adventure of Les Rois maudits. In this capacity she may well have taken part in the proofreading, or even the typing, of Huguenin’s novel.
A very fine copy.