10 - ALAIN, Émile-Auguste Chartier, known as. Eighty-One Chapters on the Mind and the Passions.

ALAIN, Émile-Auguste Chartier, known as. Eighty-One Chapters on the Mind and the Passions. Rare first edition published during World War I. A copy on vellum from the library of André Maurois, featuring a note, a letter from Alain, and three other letters concerning the philosopher. Paris, À l’Émancipatrice, 1917. Square 8vo, light brown half-maroquin, spine with three broad raised bands, double gilt fillet framing the panels, gilt head, covers and spine intact. 282 pp. Minor scuffing from use, front cover sun-faded, small water stain at the lower corner on the last 70 leaves, rare scattered foxing. Rare first edition published during World War I. A copy on laid paper, featuring an autograph note on the half-title page: “This book, which sets off on a tranquil path / makes us forget these troubled times / like a landscape on the outskirts of a city / rests upon our weary eyes.” It is dated January 1, 1918 (a second handwritten date was added: “16.1.49”). Included are 5 documents related to Alain: - a signed autograph letter from Alain to a woman [Simone André Maurois?] who, due to pain, finds herself unable to write an article about Amédée Ponceau’s *Paysages et destins balzaciens* (1 page, in-8, May 19, 1950) - a handwritten, signed letter from Gabrielle Chartier, Alain’s widow, addressed to André Maurois (1 p. in-8 on blue paper with her printed address, July 2, 1956, with envelope) - a handwritten, signed letter from the writer and journalist Charles Ouart [to André Maurois] in which he thanks him for interceding with Alain’s widow so that he and his wife could visit the philosopher’s home (2 pages, in-8, July 12, 1956) - a handwritten, signed letter from V. Alexandre [to André Maurois] mentioning Alain (1½ pages, in-8 format, October 16, 1962). - a photograph of the young André Maurois from the time when Alain was his philosophy teacher at the Lycée Corneille in Rouen (reprint, 12 x 9 cm, caption on the back). From the library of André Maurois, bearing his bookplate. Alain (1868–1951) was André Maurois’s philosophy teacher in 1901 at the high school in Rouen, before their relationship developed into a lasting friendship. This encounter during high school had a profound impact on Maurois’s writing and thought. Maurois went on to share and explain the philosopher’s work through articles and lectures, and then co-founded the Association des Amis d’Alain shortly after Alain’s death in 1951. A fine copy.