Archives

Genevoix's own copy

Kessel's testimony on the eve of D-Day

Blue paper copy, inscribed to his sister-in-law Janine Crespin

Autograph manuscript of two tales from Le Grand Socco

Hors commerce copy on laid paper, for Maurice Druon, inscribed

Kessel's rare signed 1967 copy, with letter

Kessel: “I was visited by shadows”

Maurice Druon's copy, on chamois vellum

Kessel's birthday gift to Maurice Druon

Kessel's admirable preface

Deluxe copy

A rare inscribed portrait of Kessel

Druon's own copy, on blue paper

Joseph Kessel's first contact with aviation extended over eighteen months, from mid-1917 to the end of 1918: having entered the artillery school at Fontainebleau in April 1917, Kessel volunteered for artillery observation duty in the air service. Enlisted at the end of June in the training center at Plessis-Belleville, he emerged as a qualified aspirant…

Kessel to Genevoix, fellow Academicians

Kessel's unpublished self-portrait as a novelist

Kessel's finest collection of stories

“Le Chant des partisans” (“The Song of the Partisans”), sometimes called “The Marseillaise of the Liberation,” carries a particularly strong symbolic weight: this musical allegory of the struggle against the German occupier has retained the status of a patriotic anthem, and remains one of the rare Resistance melodies still performed at official ceremonies today.It is…

Having arrived in London on 23 January 1943, Kessel enlisted in the Forces françaises libres less than a month later, on 10 February 1943. Despite his wish to fly, Kessel did not join a combat unit but was assigned to “the fighting organ of Free France,” the fiercely Gaullist weekly La Marseillaise, directed in London…

First edition: Kessel's Russian world, illustrated by Goncharova

Kessel to his nephew Maurice Druon

Terre d'amour et de feu brings together three pieces of reportage written in Palestine, then Israel, in 1926, 1948 and 1961, bearing witness to successive stages in the creation and growth of the State of Israel. Kessel, born to Jewish parents, decided in 1964 to gather these writings and rework them into a personal, updated…

Kessel and the Irish insurrection

From his experience with the S.39 squadron during the First World War, Joseph Kessel drew his first major literary success, L'Équipage. About a decade later, asked to adapt the text for the cinema, he devised the story of Le Repos de l'équipage, drawn from the many adventures he had shared with his Aéropostale comrades —…

Kessel's Aéropostale reportage, deluxe issue

Terre d'amour et de feu brings together three reports written in Palestine, then in Israel, in 1926, 1948 and 1961, bearing witness to the different stages of the creation and development of the State of Israel.Born to Jewish parents, the great reporter decided in 1964 to gather these writings, reworking them to produce a personal…

Kessel's own nephew, inscribed copy

Rare signed presentation copy