Éducation européenne
Genevoix's copy, with his manuscript ownership inscription.
Written during the war, after Romain Gary joined the Lorraine Resistance group in July 1942, this first novel was initially published in English, at the end of 1944, under the title Forest of Anger. The French version, thoroughly reworked between November 1944 and March 1945, appeared in early summer 1945. Dedicated to Robert Colnacap, a young comrade from the Lorraine group, Éducation européenne was awarded the Prix des Critiques on 7 November 1945, praised notably by Maurice Nadeau and Albert Camus.
At that time, Maurice Genevoix had just returned to his house on the Loire, “Les Vernelles,” from which he had been absent since 1940. Marked by his memories of the war and the premature death of his wife Yvonne Montrosier in 1938, he had taken refuge in Saint-Victor-et-Melvieu, his in-laws’ village in the Aveyron, before returning to Sologne at the end of 1942. He then found Les Vernelles looted and ransacked, and set about restoring it. Among other tasks, he reorganized his library, into which he incorporated this volume.
This copy bears the wrapper of the first printing, before the reprinting that followed the award of the Prix des Critiques.
Wrapper foxed.