Pour un Malherbe
€1,700.00
With *Pour un Malherbe*, Francis Ponge reaches one of the high points of his late work. The book is not merely a study of the seventeenth-century poet Malherbe, but a concentrated meditation on language, form, discipline, and literary authority. Ponge uses the historical figure as an interlocutor through whom he clarifies his own poetics. The result is at once a critical essay, a self-portrait, and an ars poetica. This 1965 first edition belongs among the major books of Ponge’s maturity and holds strong intellectual appeal for the bibliophile. Its generous quarto format gives the text a solemn, almost monumental presence. The later chocolate box-calf binding by Miguet, enriched with geometric balsa elements, further turns this copy into a true bibliophilic object.
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Ponge, Francis
ILLUSTRATORS
ILLUSTRATORS
ILLUSTRATORS
Pour un Malherbe
1965 | Paris | NRF
A major Ponge copy in which literary gravity and refined bibliophily meet with rare harmony.
With *Pour un Malherbe*, Francis Ponge reaches one of the high points of his late work. The book is not merely a study of the seventeenth-century poet Malherbe, but a concentrated meditation on language, form, discipline, and literary authority. Ponge uses the historical figure as an interlocutor through whom he clarifies his own poetics. The result is at once a critical essay, a self-portrait, and an ars poetica. This 1965 first edition belongs among the major books of Ponge’s maturity and holds strong intellectual appeal for the bibliophile. Its generous quarto format gives the text a solemn, almost monumental presence. The later chocolate box-calf binding by Miguet, enriched with geometric balsa elements, further turns this copy into a true bibliophilic object.
€1,700
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-4 (Quarto) approx. 25 × 32 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 66 deluxe copies on Hollande paper.
Print Run
66
Copy Number
No. 24
Paper
Hollande
Inscription
No inscription
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Edition Particulars:
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Product DETAIL
In this book, Ponge examines what it means to be a writer under the gaze of a major regulating poet of French classicism. Malherbe appears not simply as a historical subject, but as a measure, a counterpoint, and an ally. Ponge reflects on precision, exactness, rhetorical discipline, and the responsibility of the word. At the same time, the book is deeply personal, because its reflection on Malherbe continually bends back toward Ponge’s own working method. The text moves between criticism, autobiography, and poetic self-questioning. *Pour un Malherbe* thus becomes a key work for understanding Ponge not only as a poet of things, but also as a thinker of writing.
Michaux, Henri
Poteaux d’angles
In Poteaux d’angles, Henri Michaux returns to compact, probing prose balanced between poem and notebook. Issued by L’Herne in 1971, this copy is from the exceedingly scarce head issue on Hollande paper. Miguet’s raspberry-morocco panelled binding lends a mineral poise that suits Michaux’s angular sentences. The brief pieces act as beacons—jottings, sallies, flashes of insight and refusal. For bibliophiles the trio is ideal: original edition, luxury paper, and a fine atelier binding. The Jacques Dauchez provenance seals its pedigree.
Book
€600
Michaux, Henri
Moments
Moments is a late, compact Michaux volume where language probes time in brief surges and pauses. The grey-buffalo Jansenist binding—by Miguet—frames the spare layout and lets the text’s rhythm breathe. The title points to flashes of consciousness: halts, starts, reprises. As the édition originale in NRF’s “Le Point du Jour” series, the book exemplifies postwar bibliophile exactitude: precise setting, generous white, tactile paper. This copy is from the very small head issue on vergé de Hollande. The binding’s discreet elegance heightens reading focus.
Book
€960
Michaux, Henri
Bras cassé
Bras cassé is a compact, scarce edition in which Michaux’s taut prose-poetry uses bodily fracture as a thinking figure. Issued as loose sheets, the book encourages a fragmentary, rhythmic reading—each page an autonomous pulse. Fata Morgana’s restrained typography conducts rather than dampens the intensity. This is the original 1973 edition, with an exceedingly small head issue on Japan paper. Treille’s chemise and slipcase frame the work as an artist’s object. A model bibliophile format where material and voice converge.
Book
€850
Michaux, Henri
Bras cassé
Bras cassé is a late, incisive Michaux piece probing fracture and recovery as movements of thought. The plum morocco panel binding (Miguet) frames the pages’ taut cadence. Fata Morgana’s restrained typography lets white space and pause do the work; the voice stays close to the nerve. This édition originale appeared in 1973 in 60 numbered copies on Arches; this is no. 43. The Jansenist discretion of the binding supports the text’s edge without overpowering it. An exemplary bibliophile object where material and rhythm coincide.
