Paroles
One of 10 first copies on madagascar paper: this copy appears to be unique and bears the statement “cet exemplaire hors commerce, sur madagascar, a été spécialement imprimé pour Jacques Prévert.”
It bears on the half-title this inscription: “Pour Jacques Prévert, son ami, Jacques Prévert… et autres !”
In 1945, René Bertelé decided to publish Paroles in his new series, “Le Point du jour.” Several of the poems — 95 unpunctuated texts of widely varying form and length — had already appeared in periodicals.
“The publication of Paroles in December 1945 was a literary event. […] Jacques Prévert was unknown to the general public. Overnight, everyone was reading him, from the intellectual to the man in the street” (Bibliothèque nationale, En français dans le texte, 1990, no. 388). Indeed, a first reprint of 5,000 copies was launched a week later, followed by others, reaching the spectacular figure — for a collection of poems — of 25,000 copies within the first year. The success never waned. Its release in paperback only amplified this: with roughly 2.5 million copies sold, Paroles ranks as the fourth best-selling title in that format, after Camus’s L’Étranger and La Peste and Jules Romains’s Knock, making Prévert by far the most widely read poet in French literature.
The cover was illustrated by Brassaï. A friend of Trauner, the brilliant set designer for the Carné–Prévert team, Brassaï met the poet on the set of Ciboulette. Prévert was captivated by the artist’s talent, and together, in 1940, they crossed into the unoccupied zone and settled in Pau, where Prévert sheltered Brassaï, as well as Kosma and Trauner, all of whom were in danger because of their nationality and religion.
A witty and exceptional copy, of great rarity on this deluxe paper.