66 - [Paul ÉLUARD, under the pseudonym] BRUN. *Corps mémorable*. Paris: Pierre Seghers, November 1947.

[Paul ÉLUARD, under the pseudonym] BRUN. *Corps mémorable*. Paris: Pierre Seghers, November 1947. Small quarto, midnight blue morocco, smooth spine with decorative embossing, covers entirely covered with a design of undulating gold fillets and aqua-green fillets depicting a hand, aqua-green box linings and endpapers, untrimmed, edges gilt on endpapers, cover and spine preserved, slipcase (Pierre-Lucien Martin). First edition of the poetic memorial to Nusch, who died suddenly in 1946: only 26 copies were printed on Imperial Japan paper. Each copy is accompanied by an original drawing by Valentine Hugo as a frontispiece. A unique copy, enriched with four additional original drawings by Valentine Hugo, two of which are signed. It belonged to Professor Millot, who, in a lengthy handwritten and signed note at the end, recounts its origins: “A unique copy, if ever there was one! After having it bound in 1949 by P. L. Martin, according to my instructions, I asked V. H.—who was so closely associated with the life of ‘Brun’—to enliven it with a few drawings. […] ‘I will,’ she told me, ‘create for you the private illustration that Paul had asked me to do for his copy, but which he has since decided against.’ […]. We decided to include only four of these studies. The portrait of the author as he was at the time, two nudes, and the portrait of his muse. […] The pseudonym “Brun,” adopted by Éluard to publish these intimate poems, evokes the bear to which his friend had once compared him.” (Bibliothèque du Professeur Millot, Paris, June 15, 1991, no. 228.) A precious copy, bound in triple morocco by Pierre-Lucien Martin.