Antoine de SAINT-EXUPERY (1900-1944). Letter to a Friend. [N.p. but NY?: 1940s]. Very rare, ltd.

From the Dobo collection.

The first 36 lots in this sale are from the collection of Francis Dobo (1908-1998)

Antoine de SAINT-EXUPERY (1900-1944). Letter to a Friend [translated by Inge Sammet]. [N.p. but New York?: Charlotte Selver?, no date but 1940s]. Small octavo (8 3/8 x 5 ¼ inches; 213 x 133 mm). Pp. [i-ii]; 1-16[-18]. (Title unevenly toned, and with old light creasing and small neatly repaired tear [see images]). Original paper wrappers, the upper cover with a design after Eric Carle (damaged with loss to upper cover, repairs to upper cover [see images]).

Very rare: apparently from a limited edition. The verso of the title is signed by the publisher Charlotte Selver, and numbered ‘123’, beneath a statement which reads in part “This little document has been close to my heart ever since I read it's [sic] German translation called 'Bekenntnis einer Freundschaft', and I have always wanted to share it". OCLC records a copy which was signed but numbered ‘202’ – suggesting that the edition size was at least 202.

Francis Dobo: the “epitome of a 20th Century intellectual” Hungarian born Francis F. Dobo (1908-1998) was an important figure in the world of publishing, contemporary literature and photography for over half a century. He was lifelong friends with the renowned Hungarian masters of candid photography, Brassaï and André Kertész, first in Hungary and later in Paris in the 1930s. It was in Paris he encountered Henry Miller, Louis-Ferdinand Celine and Raymond Queneau: he corresponded and supported Miller from then on, and subsequently became Queneau’s U.S. agent.  Love of books and literature seems to have been a family trait: his uncle was Gabriel Wells (1861-1946), one of the two most important rare book dealers of his generation. The present selection includes a small number of books which belonged to Wells, with the rest being a cross section of the best of the contemporary literature which was such an important part of Francis’ life. William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Arthur Koestler, Christopher Isherwood, Norman Mailer, Franz Kafka are all here !