Gide (André)
Voyage au Congo,
suivi du Retour du Tchad et illustré de soixante-quatre photographies inédites de Marc Allégret.
Description:
ONE OF 1,571 COPIES on Vélin d'Arches paper, this copy unnumbered but likely one of the 50 given over to the author for presentation, small photograph to title-page, 4 full-page maps printed in red and black, running headers in red, photographic plates throughout,
pp. 305, 4to,
original wrappers barely attached to the textblock (loose aside from final quarter) and heavily frayed and chipped overall, fair
Publication Details:
Paris: Gallimard, 1929
Notes: An important presentation copy of this travel narrative, inscribed by the author on the half-title to the English translator of this and many other of his works: 'À mes amis Simon et Dorothy Bussy. André Gide'. Dorothy Bussy, née Strachey, was among the thirteen children of Sir Richard and Jane Strachey, and the sister therefore of Lytton, James, Oliver, etc.; a large part of her education was in France and she married the French painter Simon Bussy - she was, like her siblings, connected to the Bloomsbury Group (her only novel, 'Olivia', was published anonymously by the Hogarth Press in 1...moreAn important presentation copy of this travel narrative, inscribed by the author on the half-title to the English translator of this and many other of his works: 'À mes amis Simon et Dorothy Bussy. André Gide'. Dorothy Bussy, née Strachey, was among the thirteen children of Sir Richard and Jane Strachey, and the sister therefore of Lytton, James, Oliver, etc.; a large part of her education was in France and she married the French painter Simon Bussy - she was, like her siblings, connected to the Bloomsbury Group (her only novel, 'Olivia', was published anonymously by the Hogarth Press in 1949), but her most important friendship was with Gide, whom she first met in 1918. She came to be not only one of his closest friends, but his chief translator into English (her translation of this work, as 'Travels in the Congo', appeared in 1930). The work itself recounts a journey undertaken in the company of the photographer, Gide's partner at the time, in 1925 - its anachronistic use of the term 'Congo' (it was by then a part of French Equatorial Africa) was an intentional statement that imaginative geography was as important to the author as physical; the work is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Conrad, whose vision of the region in works such as 'Heart of Darkness' formed the foundation of Gide's own. As an exercise in ethnography, its approach is idiosyncratic - but it is a monumental work, with the photography of Allégret making a major contribution to its effect. Allégret's documentary film of the expedition launched his career in that medium. Though the copy is a poor one, the association is difficult to improve upon (particularly given the posthumous status of the printed dedicatee). HIDE
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Price: £550
Subject: Modern First Edition
Published Date: 1929
Stock Number: 58598
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