KEROUAC (Jack).

Les Clochards célestes. Paris, Gallimard, 1963. In-8, black box, four vertical strips of grey mosaic-printed leather on the second board and two similar shapes stamped on the second board, thin listel of mosaic-printed fawn box crossing the field, delimited by two gilt dots, smooth spine, ochre textured paper lining and endpapers, untrimmed, cover and spine, matching transparent spine folder and lined case (Devauchelle). First edition of the first French translation, published by Marc Saporta. One of 26 copies on vellum pur fil, the only large paper. The Dharma Bums (Les Clochards célestes), published by Viking Press in 1958, portrays the desire to escape and the spiritual quest, willingly following the paths of Buddhism, of American travellers, writers and poets of the beat generation such as Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, Gary Snyder, Peter Orlovsky, etc.