KEROUAC (Jack).

Big Sur. Paris, Gallimard, 1966. In-12, black box, carp skin decoration with large midnight blue scales mosaicked on the field, enclosed between two thin scrolls of fawn morocco, one of which crossing the boards and the upper counterplate, and enhanced with gilt dots, smooth spine, ochre textured paper lining and endpapers, untrimmed, cover and spine, matching transparent spine folder and bordered case (Devauchelle). First edition of the first French translation, by Jean Autret. One of 27 copies on pur fil, the only large paper. Published in New York in 1962, Big Sur narrates an episode in the author's life: Jack Duluoz, his novelistic avatar, tired of his life of debauchery, takes refuge in an isolated cabin on the Californian coast. Despite a few moments of creative solitude, he nearly goes mad and decides to return to San Francisco and resume his beatnik life.