Henri Rousseau

Numerous black-and-white and mounted color reproductions, covering the essential works and life of Henri Rousseau, known as Le Douanier Rousseau. Rousseau renewed the exotic and patriotic inspiration of the late nineteenth century, which Gary would later evoke in his Frère Océan trilogy. Le Douanier Rousseau appears once in L’Angoisse du Roi Salomon, Gary’s last novel published under the name Émile Ajar, begun in 1976 and set aside in favor of Pseudo. The book gathers the themes that had preoccupied Gary in his final years of writing: old age, inescapable death, the struggle to keep moving forward, and humor and derision as weapons of survival. The painter is invoked in a phrase describing Jean, the conscientious autodidact who does his research in dictionaries: “Chuck dit que je suis le douanier Rousseau du vocabulaire, et c’est vrai que je fouille les mots comme un douanier pour voir s’ils n’ont pas quelque chose de caché.”

A fine copy inscribed by Dora Vallier, presenting her book, published one year after Les Racines du ciel, to which her dedication alludes.