With a copy of the published edition:
New York, Harper & Row, [February] 1965. 1 vol. (145 x 210 mm), 244 pp., [1] and 1 leaf. Publisher's boards with illustrated dust jacket. First edition, first printing.
The first two leaves contain the text of the two dust jacket flaps; the third gives the copyright notices. These are followed by the text as it would be published in February 1965 by Harper & Row. The proofs are dated 15 December at the head.
The novel was published directly in English and would not be translated and published in France until four years later, under the title Adieu Gary Cooper. This original version was completed in California in November 1964.
The French version, entirely translated by Gary himself, was not published until March 1968, forming the second volume of his “Comédie américaine.” The French text was then dedicated “à Diego,” his son, then six years old. Because Diego Gary was born outside his parents’ marriage, the early years of his life were kept hidden from those close to the couple. His father used his diplomatic contacts to have a birth certificate drawn up in Charquemont, dated October 26, 1963, a date later than that of his parents’ marriage — they had married secretly on October 16, 1963, in the Corsican village of Sarrola-Carcopino.
Such proofs, especially for Romain Gary texts published in the United States, are rare.