FRANCE Anatole (1844 - 1924)

MANUSCRIT autograph signed "Anatole France", Le Livre des Ballades, [1876]; 69 leaves in-4 on Hollande paper, mounted on tabs and bound in one volume of lavaliere morocco, 4 fillets and corner motifs on the boards, ornate spine; nt. lace, havana silk lining and endpapers, untrimmed double endpapers, slipcase. (Mercier, successor of Cuzin). Manuscript for Le Livre des Ballades. Sixty selected ballads, prepared by Anatole France for the edition at Alphonse Lemerre in 1876. The poems are carefully copied by France in brown ink on Hollande paper. The whole is paginated in red pencil from 25 to 92 bis. One notes poems of Jehan Froissart, Eustache Deschamps, Christine de Pisan, Alain Chartier, Charles d'Orléans, etc. Autograph address to Louis BARTHOU on a flyleaf: "Ces ballades, mon cher Barthou, ont été copiées par moi pour Le Livre des Ballades, publié par A Lemerre. On the back of some pages there are several lines in my mother's handwriting. Anatole France, Paris, July 7, 1907". PROVENANCE Louis BARTHOU (II, 1042).