Les Loups

A naturalistic saga tracing the rise and fall of an industrial dynasty from Le Havre, Les Loups won the prize by six votes to three over Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit. Céline had the support of three influential jurors — Léon Daudet, Lucien Descaves and Jean Ajalbert — but could not win over a jury still wary of his violent, innovative style.

This copy is of particular interest: it is inscribed to Léon Daudet, member of the Académie Goncourt, feared critic and major figure of literary life. Daudet was precisely one of Céline’s supporters against Mazeline in this historic vote. Mazeline’s pointed tribute, praising Daudet’s “literary and civic courage,” thus reads as a gesture of esteem and influence, addressed to a hoped-for but disappointed ally.

Small tears at foot.

From the “Prix Goncourt” library of Gérard Pouguet, with bookplate.