Colette

1904 · rif. #17 — Colette Dialogues de bêtes Paris Société du Mercure de France 1904. Square 12mo. Half red morocco with bands spine with raised bands highlighted with gilt and blind fillets. Top edge gilt. Original wrappers and spine preserved. First edition of the ordinary issue following only 19 copies on Holland paper. Copy enriched with a first autograph inscription signed in black ink on the first leaf traducted in English : "To Gaston Carraud in friendly remembrance from the author Colette Willy." Followed by a second autograph inscription signed in blue ink on the same leaf: "To you now dear Philippe Hériat in memory of a cat and a dog who have become ghosts and of a young woman who has become an old writer Colette." An exceptional testimony to Colette's emancipation embodied in these two inscriptions separated by more than thirty years. Dialogues de bêtes is the first work by Colette to appear after the Claudine series published under the name of her husband Henri Gauthier-Villars. For the first time Colette allowed her own name to appear on the cover signing "Colette Willy." This text marks the beginning of her gradual literary emancipation although it is preceded by the dedication "Pour amuser Willy." In Mes Apprentissages 1936 she would write: "I was vaguely awakening to a duty toward myself—to write something other than the Claudine books. And drop by drop I exuded the Dialogues de bêtes." The 1904 first edition contains four dialogues to which eight more were added in 1905 and 1930 forming the definitive edition. The anthropomorphic characters Toby-Chien and Kiki-la-Doucette were warmly received and remain among the most emblematic features of her work. The particular value of this copy lies in the author's double inscription. Everything contributes to making it a singular witness to Colette's emancipation beginning with the recipients themselves. The first inscription is addressed to Gaston Carraud a composer and mutual acquaintance of the Gauthier-Villars couple while the second is addressed to Philippe Hériat whom Colette likely met in the 1930s when he played a role in Divine 1935 a film whose screenplay and dialogue were written by Colette after L'Envers du music-hall. The signatures themselves are also significant: the first inscription is signed "Colette Willy" a form the author used more or less regularly until 1923 after which she signed only her own name as seen in the second inscription. Even the ink used offers a subtle echo: first black ink then blue—this blue so dear to Colette the blue of Le Fanal bleu which appeared even in her inkwell and on her writing paper. The inscriptions are dated in pencil likely in Philippe Hériat's hand "1904" and "1938." An entire writer's life separates these two inscriptions by Colette in the same copy. Mercure de France