ÉLUARD (Paul). Duty and Concern. Poems followed... - Lot 82 - Ader

ÉLUARD (Paul). Duty and Concern. Poems followed by Le Rire d'un autre. Paris: A.-J. Gonon, 1917. - In-12, 165 x 104: frontispiece, 34 pp., (3 ff.), marbled paper cover with gilt title printed on the first cover. Paperback, filled cover. Very rare first edition of this collection of poems inspired by the experience and misery of war. Some of them were written in the trenches. This is Paul Éluard's third book, printed on July 31, 1917 by Léon Pichon for Gonon, his first publisher. Ten poems from the collection were published in a mimeographed handmade booklet, 17 copies of which were printed in late 1916, under the title Le Devoir. To these 10 poems, presented in a new order, Éluard added 11 new poems and a series of prose poems under the title Le rire d'un autre, which closes the collection. Only 206 copies of the edition were initialled by the publisher, and it is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece by André Deslignères on China paper. One of the 200 copies on laid paper from Papeteries d'Arches, very well preserved.