Adieu Gary Cooper
One of 80 copies on vélin pur fil (no. 99).
Written directly in English, the book was not translated but rewritten in French five years later by Romain Gary himself. Lenny, the hero of this portrait of American youth in the 1960s, no longer believes in the values of traditional America, once so certain of its own righteousness. As the war drags on in Vietnam and student protest keeps growing: “You want me to tell you, Lenny? Gary Cooper is finished. Gone, the quiet American, sure of himself and of his rights, always against the bad guys, always for the right cause, always making justice triumph and always winning in the end. Farewell, America of certainties. Now it’s Vietnam, exploding universities, and Black ghettos. Ciao, Gary Cooper.” A statement not without a certain nostalgia on the author’s part, who was particularly fond of Cooper and liked to compare himself to him: “I’m a mix of Gary Cooper and Rudolph Valentino, only better, because I have blue eyes […] There you go!”
Light dampstain to the upper corner of the first leaf, otherwise excellent condition.