Journal du dehors
Signed presentation inscription: “À Sylvie Genevoix, très chaleureusement, ces quelques instantanés, A. Ernaux, 24-03-93.”
Journal du dehors is a collection of chronicles written by Annie Ernaux as she observed daily life between 1985 and 1992: she records the almost immutable laws of social hierarchy and the natural theatricality of human exchanges, capturing words and gestures observed on the RER, in hypermarkets and in the shopping center of the New Town where she then lived [Cergy]. Ernaux herself described the texts of Journal du dehors as “written photographs.”
A fine copy with an excellent provenance: Sylvie Genevoix.
A discreet but influential literary figure, Genevoix, after studying classics at the Sorbonne, embarked on a publishing career. She began at Plon as press attaché for Éditions 10/18, then coordinated literary departments at Plon-Perrin-Julliard, becoming literary director at Julliard. From 1992 to 2005 she was literary director at Albin Michel, before being appointed to the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA), where she worked on the development of local television and the accessibility of programs for people with disabilities. At the CSA she also chaired the Mission langue française et francophonie. She grew up at Les Vernelles, the family home acquired by her father Maurice Genevoix in 1927, where she developed a deep attachment to the Loire and to family memory, which she would later evoke in La maison de mon père (2001).