MARAN (René). - Lot 164

MARAN (René). Batouala. A True African Novel. Paris: Albin Michel, [1921]. — In-16, 182 x 114: 189 pp., (1 f.), printed cover. Dark brown half-morocco with corner pieces, ribbed spine, gilt head, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved, slipcase (Devauchelle). First edition of this major and historic novel. With *Batouala*, René Maran (1887–1960) produced a powerful and socially conscious work that unflinchingly denounces the horrors of colonialism through the fate of Batouala, an African chief who symbolizes resistance and dignity in the face of oppression. In his preface, the author presents his novel as a series of etchings, the result of six years of work to faithfully recreate what he saw and heard in Equatorial Africa. He emphasizes that he set aside his own reflections to make room for the raw reality of Africans, who were all too often silenced and despised by the colonizers. Having become a true literary manifesto against colonial injustice, the book received the Prix Goncourt the year of its publication. One of the first 30 copies printed on pure-fiber laid paper from Papeteries Lafuma (no. 27). A rare and valuable copy, featuring 15 handwritten corrections by the author. It comes from the library of the poet and essayist Jean Loisy (1901–1992), who added this note on the inside cover: “In 1921, from the depths of Africa, the author was unable to review the proofs of his book. René Maran was kind enough to (very strictly) finalize the text of this copy on large-format paper. The following pages—20, 24, 26, 32, 35, 40, 41, 50, 82, 93, 99, 100, 130, 153, and 166—therefore bear his handwritten corrections. ” The copy also includes the following additions: - an autograph poem signed on the half-title page as a dedication, titled “Fable express.” - An autograph manuscript written in ink, mounted at the top, of a text composed in the early 2010s, 3/4 of an in-4 page, enriched with this autograph note in pencil added 40 years later: “The pages above are excerpts from a fairly long short story, *Djogoni*, written in French Equatorial Africa between 1910 and 1912, several pages of which were later included—some in *Batouala*, particularly the scene of the tornado, and others, such as this one, in *Un Homme Pareil aux Autres*. Paris, December 26, 1953. René Maran.” - Photographic portrait of René Maran. A very fine copy. Provenance: Jean Loisy.