L’Affaire Saint-Fiacre

This title is among the first 22 novels published by Arthème Fayard in the first series dedicated to him, which gave birth to Commissaire Maigret. The series was launched on February 20, 1931 with the publication of Monsieur Gallet, décédé and Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien, on the occasion of the celebrated Bal anthropométrique at the Boule Blanche, to which Simenon invited all of Paris. The series then appeared at the rate of one title per month and ended in October 1932 after 22 titles, including 17 “Maigret” novels, two novels (Le Relais d’Alsace and Le Passager du Polarlys) and three collections of short stories (Les 13 coupables, Les 13 énigmes and Les 13 mystères).

The first edition appeared in February 1932 without deluxe-paper copies, which were issued a year later. The novel had been written at the Villa “Les Roches Grises,” Cap-d’Antibes, in January 1932, and was serialized in the daily L’Union républicaine de l’Aisne. The manuscript was destroyed by the author.

The first edition appeared in July 1931, and its deluxe-paper issue appeared a year later: at the time, it was not customary to prepare a deluxe-paper printing for detective novels. Fayard, having second thoughts, eventually issued, on the occasion of a reprint, a printing of 50 copies on vélin pur fil Lafuma. As a result, the deluxe-paper copies of the first 16 titles published by Fayard (15 Maigret investigations and Le Relais d’Alsace) are not part of the first editions of these novels. It was only from the “Maigret” novel Le Port des brumes (published in May 1932) onward that Fayard had deluxe-paper copies of the first editions printed.