L’Inconnu sur la terre

Name: L'Inconnu sur la terre
SKU: 19612
Price: 1200 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: J. M. G. Le Clézio

Paris, Gallimard, coll. « Le Chemin », (14 février) 1978.

1 vol. (140 x 210 mm) of 325 p. and [1] f. Bradel-style half tobacco morocco with bands, gilt title and top edge, date gilt at foot, original wrappers and spine preserved, matching slipcase (binding signed Loutrel-Delaporte).

First edition.

One of 26 deluxe copies on white Holland Van Gelder laid paper, this copy no. 3.

“I want to write for the beauty of the gaze, for the purity of language. […] I want to write to be on the side of animals and children, on the side of those who see the world as it is, who know all its beauty […].” This programmatic sentence from L’Inconnu sur la terre was quoted by Patrick Kechichian in Le Monde of 11 October 2008, when he announced the award of the Nobel Prize to J.-M. G. Le Clézio, describing it as emblematic of the “poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy” recognized by the Swedish Academy.

L’Inconnu sur la terre remains one of Le Clézio’s most secret books. A visionary of humanity’s future, he sought to record, through poetic meditations punctuated by light drawings, a spiritual journey that had, almost without fail, found its way: between 1967 and 1978, Le Clézio’s path had led through Mexico and an encounter with another Indian world, that of Mesoamerica, the Huichol Indians of the Sierra Madre and the Emberá of Panama.

#19612

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