214 - GIONO (Jean), 1895–1970.

GIONO (Jean), 1895–1970. Autograph letter signed “Jean Giono,” [Manosque, June 11, 1934, according to the postmark; the date “June 1935” was added by hand—apparently by mistake—in the upper left corner of the letter’s first page], 2 pp., in-4 with envelope, to Louis Brun, director of Bernard Grasset Publishers. He thanks his correspondent for the check and asks him for a van to come pick up the two “extremely rare” jars located in his garden. Unfortunately, he will not be able to travel to Beauvallon due to a painful ankle injury. “”[...] And despite everything, I’m editing. I’m putting the photo album together. The combination of text and photos will be something no one has ever seen before. A new format that I’ve gradually invented, and which I believe no one will be able to hold in their hands without being deeply moved. It’s made with the heart, you know; but I think it’s now fairly well established that something made with the heart also has undeniable commercial appeal. It’s, if you will, an ‘Angèle without Pagnol.’ As for the title, I don’t know yet! Atlas of the Hills? Atlas for Walking Through the Fields? Atlas of Unknown Lands? Well, a thousand others.” In a postscript, he asks L. Brun what he has planned for the press office “[...] I’ve never had as many excuses as I do this time for not going to Paris. If you’re afraid they’ll get upset, let’s say I’m injured, which is true [...] We should make some cards. It bothers me to sign the sheets.” As early as 1933, Giono had welcomed the German refugee couple Ruth and Walter Gerull-Kardas—a painter and a photographer—to Manosque. To help them financially, he offered to contribute a text to Kardas’s photo album dedicated to the landscapes and people of his world. The project gradually took on greater scope until its publication by Grasset in June 1936 under the title “Les Vraies Richesses.” Giono’s text is accompanied by 112 heliogravure photographs by Walter Gerull-Kardas. Meanwhile, Marcel Pagnol was working on “Angèle,” his film adaptation of Giono’s novel “Un de Baumugnes,” which premiered in Marseille on September 28, 1934. Giono and Kardas thus envisioned “another way to bring his work to life in images, without resorting to film or Pagnol’s interpretation”: the places, landscapes, and characters of his fictional world photographed directly. The letter thus provides a fascinating account of the genesis—two years before its publication—of one of Giono’s most unique books, through the interplay of text and photography.