CHARBONNEAU (Louis). - Lot 116

CHARBONNEAU (Louis). Mambu and His Love. Paris: René Kieffer, [1925]. — In-8, 198 x 143: (4 leaves, the first two blank), IV, 221 pp., (3 leaves, the last two blank), illustrated cover. Black half-maroquin with corner pieces, smooth spine decorated with a checkerboard pattern of beige and tan maroquin surrounding the gilt title in the center, gilt head, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved (René Kieffer). A deluxe edition, published a few months after the original, of this colonial novel, winner of the Grand Prix de la littérature coloniale in 1925. It begins with a preface by Raymond Escholier, which was already included in the 1924 edition. This is an autobiographical work in which Louis Charbonneau (1865–1951), a merchant and mining prospector, recounts “his marriage in the local custom” to Mambu, a young African woman he met during his travels in Equatorial Africa, notably in Belgian Mayumbe (present-day Congo). This account, recorded in his diary, had deeply moved Raymond Escholier, who recalls his experience reading it in his preface: “I still remember with emotion that summer evening when I read in one sitting the two thick notebooks that had inspired so much mistrust in me. A soul lived within those yellowed pages—a delicate and rare soul, that of young Mambu (pronounced Mambou), the little Black girl who was able to reveal to a white man the mischievous dignity and smiling modesty that can exist in a woman’s heart, Mambu, who inspired in him a respect for women, regardless of the color of their skin; Mambu, the little Black girl who “civilized” a white man” (p. II). This illustrated edition features “African scenes” by Jean Vergély, adorning the cover, the title page, and every page of text. It also includes a full-page map, drawn by Charbonneau himself, depicting the region of the Congo where Mambu lived, inserted at the end of the book in the “Note on the Fiote Race.” Limited edition of 1,050 copies. This copy is one of the first 50 printed on Imperial Japan paper (no. 32). A fine copy bound by René Kieffer. Provenance: V. Ducamp, with 2 bookplates.