a Thousand copies of the private library of ex-president French socialist go to auction this week
In their dedications, as well as in letters and other private documents cannot be read from the footprint vital Mitterrand
The thousand love letters Mitterrand to your lover
Anne Pingeot: the life of the ‘captive’ of Mitterrand
We are in 1954 and François Mitterrand has just been appointed minister of the Interior in the Government of Pierre Mendès France. Albert Camus sends his book ‘The righteous’. In his dedication to blemish the title of the article and the plural form of this phrase: “For the Lord Minister of the Interior, in memory of a JUST cause and with the tribute respectful of Albert Camus”.
The cause was the fight against nazism. Camus joined the Resistance in the 41; Mitterrand, from his position in the Vichy government, had been established in the 43 an underground movement that was falsifying identity documents for prisoners of war escapees. Both are going to match through Marguerite Duras…
The writer and her husband Robert Antelme join the network of Mitterrand, while the lover, Dionys Mascolo, let Camus hide documents anti-nazi in the office of the publisher Gallimard, for which he works.
on June 1, 1944, Mitterrand and Antelme have an appointment at the Brasserie Lipp. As it does not reach, Mitterrand called to her house by phone. Two times. He gets the sister who answered was a wrong number. It is the signal. The police has arrested Antelme, who will be deported to Dachau. Warned by Mitterrand, Camus and Mascolo are going to home of Hard and take the papers demanding to Gallimard, where hidden among the manuscripts.
That was the ‘just cause’ of the dedication of Camus. If you liked the story and want to be done with the copy, you can bid this Monday, in the auction. Prepare about 8,000 euros. The book is one of the thousand who formed the private library of Mitterrand and the house Piasa expected to finish in two evenings.
Books that never came out of the home of the Mitterrand. His wife Danielle took care of encuadernarlos and have a day file. The first president of the left-wing of the V Republic was a man of order. In most of the volumes there is a slip of white paper on which he wrote down with his pen Waterman the author’s name, title, price, date, and library where he had acquired it, as well as the name and price of the bookbinder.
Mitterrand was a great reader and a bibliophile category. Your library of the Elysee went on to score 20,000 copies. That passion will be joined by another president, Georges Pompidou, or the cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin. Also to united States presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt who met with 15,000 volumes. Mitterrand donated to their public library to the media Library of Nevers.
One of the first books of Mitterrand was the ‘Land of Men’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry that he gave his sister Geneviève by his 23rd birthday, in 1939. The war had begun, and Mitterrand was stationed in The Ardennes. He held the book to be captured in the 40. And took him along when he managed to escape, on the third attempt. That explains its poor state and only expected to reach 6,000 euros.
On the shelves of Mitterrand is the best of the writers of the French right, Chardonne, Brasillach or Drieu la Rochelle. Many justify it by its appreciation of literary style. True. Also because Mitterrand until nearly the end of the 40’s was a boy of the right.
Ernst Jünger visited him in Germany already being president. He was invited to go to Verdun together. Jünger, who fought as a volunteer in the First War and lived in Paris occupied during the Second, gave dedicated ‘Mantrana’. To be a copy of an edition not sold is expected to reach 12,000 euros.
This price may be paid by ‘The lover of the China of the north’ which its author, Harsh, I referred in 1991 with a dedication to caring. It is also a issue unique.
François Mauriac, writer, right-wing and that had been internal in the marist brothers, as he, did honor to his legendary sense of humor, dedicating its ‘De Gaulle’. The founder of the fifth Republic has its place among the manuscripts, and autographs that he collected the socialist leader. It is a letter of 1965 of the general, a former minister of yours, Francisque Gay, member of a catholic movement that Mitterrand was next, according to the catalog of more than 300 pages of which are taken references, quotations, and estimates of prices. 8000 euros can be worth the letter.
Against the general, wrote to Mitterrand his pamphlet ‘The coup d’état permanent’. To auction a number of copies that can go for around 2,000 euros. Little more can cost the defence of the common programme of the left ‘the rose in The fist’ because of binding with the then-new emblem of socialist recorded by Danielle on the cover.
A letter from the leader of the PC, Georges Marchais, in the official paper of the party will be sold in about 1,500 euros. For double you can buy ‘Democracy French’ which its author, Valéry Giscard d’estaing, made him come with a dedication “in memory of his discussion” of 1974.
Works dedicated to Milan Kundera, and García Márquez go on sale. Also by Louis Aragon which will auction the manuscript support his candidacy in 1965.
Contemporary Mitterrand and Willy Brandt, Margaret Thatcher, or Simon Peres abound between what you are looking for a buyer.
Among the rarities, a letter of Francis I, signed by the king and contrafirmada by its secretary Florimond Robertet. Mitterrand explained to his lover, Anne Pingeot, that the so-Florimond married with a Mitterrand. Price of output, thousand euros. Does anyone give more?
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