Peter Bichsel   Fine Books

Cendrars, Blaise. Léger, Fernand. La fin du monde filmée par l’ange N.-D. Roman. Compositions en couleurs par Fernand Léger.

Illustrated with 22 colour compositions in pochoir manner (incl. half-title, title page, chapter titles, and colophon) by Férnand Léger. (60) pp. 4to. Orig. illus. wrappers, housed in a brown cloth box with spine label. – Paris, Éditions de la Sirène, 1919.

Edition originale. One of 1200 numbered copies “in-quarto raisin” on papier Régistre vélin Lafuma besides 25 copies de luxe. Published at Jean Cocteau’s press, this is one of the truly outstanding illustrated books in the 20th century with a striking combination of letters and illustrations comparable to the manner of Russian books of the same period. “Cendrar’s twentieth-century satire is organized like a movie script and given a dizzying pictorial environment by Léger” (Castleman). The text, a movie scenario, was written down by Cendrars (1887–1961) in only one night and was planned to be published in the “Livre du cinéma” in 1918. Finally it was published separately in the present edition. Cendrars wrote and published a first preceding scenario under the same title “La fin du monde” (Éd. La Caravane), a second one in 1918 titled “Le film de la fin du monde” (Denoël). The letters “N. D.” do not mean “Notre Dame” but is the phonetic transcription of “End”, the last word appearing on screen at the end of a movie. – Saphire 299; Castleman 170f.; Monod 2395. – The binding getting loose in some places. A clean and good to very good copy. – Best.-Nr. 25895