Journal. journal d'un homme de Trente Ans.
First edition of Mauriac's Journal.
A superb copy, part of the deluxe edition, preserved in its half-morocco binding made by A. and R. Maylander.
From the library of Charles Hayoit.
6 vols. in-12 of I/ (3) ff., 222 pp., (3) ff. ; II/ 232 pp., (1) f. ; III/ 218 pp., (2) ff. ; IV/ (1) f., 245 pp., (1) f. ; V/ 252 pp., (1) f. ; VI/ 135 pp., (2) ff.
Midnight blue half morocco with corners, spines with raised bands richly decorated with mosaic motifs and lined with red morocco and gilt fillets, gilt titles and volume numbers, gilt dates at foot, covers and spines preserved. Binding signed A. and R Maylander.
183 x 119 mm.
Mauriac, François. Journal.
Paris, Benard Grasset, 1934-1940; Flammarion, 1950-1953.
Followed by:
Mauriac, François. Journal of a Thirty-Year-Old Man.
Paris, Egloff, 1948.
First editionof Journal by François Mauriac.
Copy belonging to the limited edition: one of 10 printed on imperial Japanese paper for the first three volumes (nos. 2, 3 and 6 respectively); one of 55 printed on Lana wove paper for volumes IV and V (nos. 23 and 37 respectively); one of 50 printed on Marais pur fil paper for the Journal of a Thirty-Year-Old Man (no. 18).
“It is the conversation a writer holds in a low voice with himself before a human audience,” wrote Denis de Rougemont about Mauriac’s Journal.
Mauriac’s Journal was published in several parts: Journal I in 1934, Journal II in 1937, Journal III in 1940, Journal IV in 1951, and Journal V in 1953.
These texts alternate between scenes of intimate life, recollections of childhood spent in the Bordeaux region, personal reflections on the condition and problems of Christians in the world today, judgments about the evolution of art, music and poetry, the recall of literary friendships and their impact on the author’s ethical and aesthetic behavior.
He demonstrates a talent for polemics recognized by all, a biting irony, and a cruel humor from which his adversaries often struggled to recover.
François Mauriac always took journalism seriously. There was something unique in each of his columns, an electric blend of talent and heart. The press suited his nature as a grand bourgeois from Bordeaux, Catholic, modern, combative, curious about everything and above all about his own time. He remains the inventor and model of an essentially solitary journalism, even if generous and open to others, eager to persuade or confront them.
These texts allow us to follow the writer in his dialogue with himself and in the multiplicity of his commitments. We see him play all the registers of his talent and shift in “ten lines,” as Françoise Giroud said, “from cry to whisper, from anger to sigh, from the topical to the eternal, from whisper to address.”
The test of time, unforgiving for mediocrities, is always the ally of complex natures. Mauriac never ceases to rise above himself, his whims and his words.
The only “true” diary published by François Mauriac, the Journal of a Thirty-Year-Old Man consists of confidences offered to the public at the end of World War II, in 1948, covering a decade of his life, from 1914 to 1924.
“These volumes provide very valuable information on the state of mind of one of the great Christian novelists of our century” (Dictionnaire des œuvres).
Superb copy, belonging to the limited edition, with covers and spine preserved, beautifully bound in half-morocco by A. and R. Maylander.
Provenance: Charles Hayoit Library, with ex-libris.
A great bibliophile, Charles Hayoit (1901-1984) owned a first-rate library. His library was characterized by the highest standards.
