One of the copies printed for the press (no deluxe-paper copies).
Inscribed and signed: “à Chouchette et Roger, Paul Claudel.”
This copy was presented by Paul Claudel to his eldest daughter, Marie “Chouchette” Claudel (1907–1981), and her husband Roger Méquillet (1899–1976), director of the Grands Moulins de Paris. Born in Tientsin, China, while Claudel was serving as French consul general there, Marie Claudel married Roger Méquillet in 1928. The wedding announcement, published in Meridiano letterario (no. 36, September 2, 1928), noted with some humor that it was “a rather charming way for a miller to enter French literature.”
From the 1930s onward, Claudel maintained an active correspondence with his daughter and son-in-law, particularly during his tenure as French ambassador to Belgium. These letters attest to his affection for the couple and their children — his grandsons — about whom he regularly asked for news and whom he liked to gather at his château of Brangues, in Isère, acquired in 1927.
Two years earlier, in 1934, he had already presented the couple with his very first work, from Brangues, with this touching inscription: “à Chouchette et Roger — quand leur vieux père était jeune! P. Claudel, Brangues, le 21 juin 1934.”
Nicolas Ducimetière, Mélanges tirés… Familles, je vous hai….me!, 2016, online.