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L’An 1964

SKU LAN1-001

*L’An 1964* is an exceptionally intimate PAB publication by René Char, printed in Alès on 2 January 1964. The text is a new edition of *Pages d’ascendants* and appears here for the first time under this title. As often with Pierre-André Benoît, the book is small in format but intense in bibliophile presence. This copy is one of seven on Chine, signed by PAB. The bound-in autograph card by PAB, announcing misprints and the reprinting of a leaf, gives the copy exceptional documentary value. Since both the faulty and corrected states of the leaf are preserved, the book reveals its own making at close range.

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L’An 1964
1964 | Alès | Éditions PAB
One of seven copies on Chine, with PAB’s card and both states of the corrected leaf.

*L’An 1964* is an exceptionally intimate PAB publication by René Char, printed in Alès on 2 January 1964. The text is a new edition of *Pages d’ascendants* and appears here for the first time under this title. As often with Pierre-André Benoît, the book is small in format but intense in bibliophile presence. This copy is one of seven on Chine, signed by PAB. The bound-in autograph card by PAB, announcing misprints and the reprinting of a leaf, gives the copy exceptional documentary value. Since both the faulty and corrected states of the leaf are preserved, the book reveals its own making at close range.

€1,650
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-16 (approx. 16,6 x 13,5 cm)
Edition Particulars
One of 7 copies on Chine, signed by PAB, with PAB’s bound-in autograph card and both states of the reprinted leaf.
Print Run
64
Copy Number
No. V/VII
Paper
Chine
Inscription
Signed by the Editor

Product DETAIL

The text recasts *Pages d’ascendants* in a new form and would later be incorporated into *Recherche de la base et du sommet*. Char writes in a concentrated, meditative prose in which memory, origin, kinship, and moral elevation are closely joined. It is not a narrative in the conventional sense, but a sequence of dense reflections on ancestry, spiritual continuity, and the poet’s place. The title *L’An 1964* gives the text an almost ceremonial date: the beginning of a year, the return to an earlier text, and a new position within the oeuvre. The material features of this copy also show the text still being corrected during production.

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Studies & Dossiers
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When a Signature Becomes Provenance

A signature confirms; a dedication connects; an association copy tells a story.

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The Fragile Meaning of ‘Complet’

In auction descriptions, “complete” often sounds reassuring — but it is only meaningful when verified against the colophon, the justification, and the bibliography. For The Hidden Page, clarity begins where vague market language ends.

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The Avant-Garde and the Illustrated Word

How the Twentieth Century Recast the Book as an Artistic and Ideological Medium

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