60 - BEN-SUSSAN, René, and GREEN, Julien. *Le Voyageur sur la Terre*.

BEN-SUSSAN, René, and GREEN, Julien. *Le Voyageur sur la Terre*. First illustrated edition, featuring 12 superb woodcut illustrations by René Ben-Sussan as insert plates. A very fine first-printing copy on Japanese paper (No. 5), containing a set of woodcuts and color separations on thin, pearlescent Japanese paper, in a perfect binding by Alain Lobstein. Paris, J.-E. Pouterman, 1929. In-8, navy blue half-maroquin with narrow bands, smooth spine adorned with the author’s name, title, and illustrator’s name in gold lettering, covers lined with blue and red handmade paper, linings and endpapers of blue paper bearing the bookbinder’s full signature, gilt head, covers and spine preserved (binding signed A. Lobstein). 125 pp. and 1 f. (end of printing), 12 woodcut illustrations in two or three tones by René Ben-Sussan. Minimal white marks on the spine and the lower edge of the front cover. First illustrated edition of this collection of short stories by Julien Green (1900–1998). The first story, which gives the book its title, is set in the southern United States, a region the author—who was of American origin—knew well. The remarkable illustration, at once intimate and metaphysical—a perfect embodiment of the unsettling atmosphere, on the border between reason and madness, which Julien Green so skillfully evokes, features 12 woodcuts engraved in two or three tones as separate plates by the excellent Greek-born engraver René Ben-Sussan (1895–1988). Limited to 225 copies, this is one of the first 15 numbered copies on Imperial Japan paper (No. 5), containing a set of woodcuts on pearlescent Japan paper and a color breakdown on thin Japan paper. A superb first edition copy with its original covers preserved, in a fine binding by Alain Lobstein (1927–2005).