La Bâtarde
Paris: Gallimard, 1964. 1st Edition. Octavo, publisher’s printed paper wraps, french flaps.
First edition of French feminist "bad girl" Violette Leduc’s bestselling memoir, inscribed by her to New York Times food writer Barbara Kafka. Despite writing for decades and earning praise from contemporaries such as Camus, Genet, Sartre, and most famously Beauvoir, who wrote the book’s preface, Leduc spent most of her life impoverished, in obscurity and plagued by suicidal ideation, detailed at length in the present work. Haunted by what she considered a physical deformity (her large nose), the stigma of her "bastard" birth, her mother’s neglect, and romantic rejections, Leduc turned to writing to express the everyday disappointments of her ill-starred existence. The major turning point in her life was when she met Beauvoir shortly after the end of the war. An intense and often one-sided relationship ensued. Despite the indifference Beauvoir felt toward the desperate passion Leduc expressed, she became the driving force behind her career (and at times despair). She sent letters to Leduc weekly encouraging her to write, arranged a monthly stipend for her through Gallimard, and convinced her to enter a clinic when her mental health began to decline. After receiving shock therapy and a rest cure, Leduc returned to the world with Beauvoir’s suggestion that she "begin from birth," leading to what would become La Bâtarde. Text in French. Inscribed by Leduc to the half-title in violet ink: "à Barbara Kafka / qui a de l'amité pour Jacques, avec l'espoir de la connaître / Violette Leduc." Laid in is a brief autograph note of introduction from Jacques (identity unkown) to Kafka. Some soiling and edgewear to wraps. Very good. Item #10846
$500.00