Au grand socco

The seven stories in this collection were written during the summer of 1951. Kessel had settled on the island of Djerba, off the Gulf of Gabès, together with those close to him: his companion Michèle O’Brien and his nephew Maurice Druon.

Druon was its first, enthusiastic reader. So captivated was he by his uncle’s description that a few months later he traveled to Tangier, where he had himself taken directly to the city’s great market, the grand Socco. This “setting fit for Graham Greene, attractive but nothing more” had, under Kessel’s pen, become the “Baghdad of the Thousand and One Nights and the Djemaa el-Fna of Marrakech”! Druon wrote to him: “My dear Jef, now I understand — I have just been to the grand Socco. You’re a forger. In the manner of Homer!”

A rare Kessel title on deluxe paper, and arguably his finest collection of short stories. Kessel would be elected to the Académie française ten years later, on 22 November 1962; his nephew would join him under the Coupole four years after that, in 1966.

From the library of Maurice Druon (inscription and bookplate).

A fine copy with an impeccable provenance.“,
“short_description”: “Druon’s own copy, on blue paper”,
“subtitle”: “”,
“adress_long”: “Paris, Gallimard, (May 23) 1952.“,
“condition_long”: “1 vol. (115 x 180 mm) of 318 p., [1] and 1 f. Half orange morocco with corners, title-piece, spine with raised bands, top edge gilt, original wrappers and spine preserved.”,
“exemplaire_long”: “First edition.

One of 46 first hors commerce copies on azure-blue parchment paper, this one of the first XX numbered copies, for Maurice Druon (no. VI).

Signed presentation inscription: “Mon cher confrère, je vous confierai que j’ai un neveu que j’aime de tout coeur et que j’embrasse de même. Jef.”