Le Grand Vestiaire
One of 10 author's copies on alfa paper (no. 4).
Accompanied by a typed letter signed by Georges Ravon to Romain Gary: “... je viens de lire d'un trait Le grand vestiaire et je veux vous dire, sans plus tarder, combien ce livre m'a passionné,” dated 10 February 1949, on Figaro letterhead.
The novel was written while Romain Gary held his first diplomatic post, as an embassy attaché — a period during which, under the code name “Libraire,” he was tracked by the Bulgarian secret services, who infiltrated his circle and monitored his every move. “It was fascinating and sad to watch a state pass from a pseudo-monarchist democracy to a totalitarian, Stalinist-style dictatorship,” he said in his last interview, given to Radio-Canada a few months before his suicide in December 1980. Gary had taken up his post in February 1946; Lesley Blanch joined him some months later. Tulipe had not been a great success, and Gary quickly set to work on Le Grand Vestiaire, which he finished in Paris at the end of summer 1948.
Ravon’s letter must have pleased Gary, and perhaps encouraged him going forward: this brilliant columnist for Le Figaro was also a major figure of the theater, working among other places at the Odéon and with Gaston Baty at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.