Raboliot

Paris, Delagrave, (June 30) 1960. First edition for young readers. Illustrated by Paul Durand.
Paderborn, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 1958. In wrappers. French-language edition, introduced and edited by Josef Vitzer.
Paris, Bernard Grasset, (October 8) 1959. In wrappers, cover illustrated with a photograph.
Paris, Le Livre de poche, 1961. In wrappers, illustrated cover. First paperback edition, no. 692 of the eponymous series.
Paris, Bernard Grasset, 1962. Publisher’s boards and illustrated dust jacket. Grasset club edition, coll. « B24, Bibliothèque de l’Homme de goût ».
Sestos, Bietti, 1964. Publisher’s boards and illustrated dust jacket. Italian edition. Review copy.
Paris, Bernard Grasset, (November 30) 1965. In wrappers. Publisher’s band preserved.
Paris, Hachette, (January 20) 1975. Publisher’s boards and illustrated dust jacket. Club edition, coll. « Club pour vous ».
Paris, France-Loisirs, (January 31) 1979. Publisher’s boards and illustrated dust jacket. With chronology, preface and pictorial section at front.
Paris, Bernard Grasset, (September 20) 1984. In wrappers. Cover illustrated with a photograph.

The collection notably includes the edition explicitly intended for a young readership: although Raboliot had already appeared in several illustrated editions, this is the first aimed at adolescent readers, with a clear pedagogical purpose. The illustrations were entrusted to Paul Durand, a discreet but essential figure of twentieth-century popular illustrated publishing. He produced numerous covers for the Bibliothèque verte and Bibliothèque rose series, nearly 200 covers for “J’ai lu,” and several hundred other illustrations for various publishers.

His discovery of the Sologne region and Genevoix’s world led him to illustrate three of the author’s major titles: this Raboliot, as well as La Dernière Harde and La Forêt perdue.

A fine set.

From the library of Maurice Genevoix, at “Les Vernelles” (bookplate in each volume).