La Gloire de l’Empire
One of the press copies, stamped as such.
Presentation copy inscribed by Jean d'Ormesson to Maurice Genevoix:
“à Monsieur Maurice Genevoix, à Madame Maurice Genevoix, ces images d'une histoire universelle trop méconnue hélas ! des enfants de nos écoles, autour d'une vieille forêt qu'aurait seul pu décrire avec éclat l'incomparable auteur du Bestiaire enchanté, en hommage de profonde gratitude, de très affectueux et très respectueux attachement, Jean.”
La Gloire de l’Empire was the book that brought recognition: Maurice Genevoix was then Permanent Secretary of the Académie française, and in 1971 the Académie chose to award its prize to Jean d’Ormesson’s sixth novel, which had already won over both general readers and the most demanding critics. It was true literary recognition for the future academician, who declared in 2015 that “La Gloire de l’Empire changed my life.”
Maurice Genevoix’s friendship began first with the uncle, Wladimir d’Ormesson, writer and diplomat, a member of the Académie française from 1956 to 1973. The nephew, Jean d’Ormesson, would carry on the relationship. He held an immense and affectionate admiration for Genevoix, both as a writer and as a man; after Genevoix’s death in September 1980, he paid tribute to him, recalling with emotion the happiness of having known him: “He knew his own worth: he was not proud. He could be sharp, incisive, but he was never unkind. He had tenderness for forests, animals, his native Loire, his Sologne, for those who suffer and die: men loved him in return. He knew everything: he was the opposite of a pedant. He understood everything. But he knew how to live. All honors had passed over him without touching him. This man of the woods and this warrior was an intellectual. He had to bear witness to everything a generation of Frenchmen had known of sorrow and joy: a simple and happy life, love of the land, war and peace, remembrance.”
A very fine provenance, enriched with a deferential presentation inscription to the man who had just had the book crowned with the Grand Prix de l’Académie française, and who would welcome d’Ormesson into the Académie two years later.