121 - Henri MICHAUX. *Qui je fus*. With a woodcut portrait of the author by G. Aubert. Paris, Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, 1927.

Henri MICHAUX. *Qui je fus*. With a woodcut portrait of the author by G. Aubert. Paris, Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, 1927. In-12 format, paperback, housed in a half-maroquin Lavallière box with bands. First edition, printed in Dijon on the presses of Maurice Darantière. One of the 16 first-edition copies on old tinted Japanese paper, printed especially for Henri Michaux. These first-edition copies are accompanied by a full-margin proof, on tinted Japanese paper, of the author’s portrait signed by Georges Aubert—“the only realistic portrait ever reproduced in a book by Michaux, who had opposed the very idea of a portrait for as long as he could, but to no avail” (Henri Michaux Exhibition, BnF, no. 9). A precious copy belonging to his first love, Gabrielle Friedrich, with a long autographed dedication on the half-title page: “I was shaping a little creature out of breadcrumbs, a sort of mouse. Just as I was finishing its third leg, it suddenly started running. It fled under cover of night” Who I Was to my most precious Banjoby Henry The long quotation in quotation marks preceding the dedication itself is taken from the second chapter of the book (page 24). Jean-Pierre Martin, Henri Michaux’s biographer, discussing the enigmatic figure of Banjoby—also known as Banjeby, Banjo, or By—cites this copy of *Qui je fus* and its dedication, which attests to the existence of Banjo-Gabrielle. “Banjo, like Nadja, more so than Gala, is entirely poetic. Her body of rare words inspires dreams of love. Her body of rare words also inspires dreams of Michaux’s loving-beloved selves, half-hidden, revealed yet concealed, overshadowed by a thousand unloving-unloved selves” (Henri Michaux, p. 167). A perfect copy preserved in a half-maroquin box in in-4 format, allowing the full-bleed print of the author’s portrait by Georges Aubert—signed and authenticated—to be preserved; it is mounted under a Plexiglas window in the box’s upper flap. (Michaux, Œuvres complètes I, Pléiade, p. 1214: “Gabrielle Friedrich is said to be the very woman whom Michaux alternately calls Banjo, Banjeby, and By, and to whom the copy of *Qui je fus*, specially printed for Michaux in 1927, was already dedicated.”)