[Literature] Genet, Jean Group of 2 Titles: One Signed Limited Edition, and One Inscribed

Oeuvres Completes...
(Paris): Gallimard, (1951). Review copy, "S.P." (service de presse), printed at bottom of title-page. 8vo. 402, (2) pp. Affectionately inscribed by Genet on half-title to Madeleine, who a previous cataloguer suggested was French actress and theater producer, Madeleine Renaud: "A Madeleine/Ma jolie/Homage respectueux/Jean Genet". Original stiff printed wrappers, toned; in original glassine dust-jacket; text toned with scattered minor foxing; inscription slightly faded; front hinge cracking.

Madeleine Renaud (1900-94) was a leading French actress, who along with her husband, Jean-Louis Barrault (1910-94), founded the major French theater company, Compagnie Renaud-Barrault, in 1947. Their company was considered a mainstay of the Paris stage, and introduced Parisian audiences to the works of Genet, Samuel Beckett, and Eugène Ionesco, amongst others. In 1966 they produced and starred in a production of Genet's final play The Screens (Les Paravents). Directed by Roger Blin, the drama opened at the Odeon Theater to controversy due to its subject of the Algerian War of Independence.

The first volume of Genet's Complete Works, featuring some of his most celebrated titles, including Our Lady of the Flowers (Notre-Dame des Fleurs), Miracle of the Rose (Miracle de la Rose), A Song of Love (Un chant d'amour), and The Man Sentenced to Death (Le Condamné à Mort).

Together with:

Journal du Voleur
(Genève): Aux dépens d'un ami, (1949). Limited edition ("Edition Originale Reserve Aux Seuls Souscripteurs"), #176/400 copies signed by Genet, on Arches wove paper (from a total edition of 410). Folio. 309, (3) pp. Gatherings loose as issued in printed paper chemise with original glassine, scattered wear and short tears; sheets largely unopened; in original board slip case, bottom panel separated.

A handsome signed limited edition of Genet's fifth, partly autobiographical, novel, recounting his life as a pickpocket on the margins of society.

Provenance

From the private collection of Asher D. Atchick, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania