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Charrière, Henri; O’Brian, Patrick (trans.).
Papillon [inscribed by Charrière to Ray Connolly].
Publisher: Rupert Hart-Davis, London;
Date of Publication: 1970
Stock Code: 15030
First British edition, published one year after the first French edition. Octavo, pp., 566. Publisher’s original chocolate cloth, titled in gilt to spine, in the original unclipped pictorial dust-jacket designed by Stephen Abis; yellow map end-papers. Boldly inscribed in ink to verso of half-title ‘ 14-5-70 A Ray Connolly - un jeune inonformiste tres attirant et sympathique Merci pour ce moment passé avec moi Tous ami Papillon’ i.e. ‘To Ray Connolly a young non-conformist very attractive and likeable Thank you for spending time with me your friend Papillon’. Light soiling to spine-panel, minor shelf-wear to head. Binding strong and square, cloth and gilt bright. Spots of soiling to fore-edge, otherwise clean. A very good, solid copy in like jacket. The first edition of the author’s most celebrated novel, inscribed to Ray Connolly, writer and journalist. Connolly interviewed the Beatles, Muhammad Ali, Elvis Presley, and, of course, Henri Charrière. Connolly wrote the screenplay for That’ll Be the Day (1973) and it’s sequel Stardust (1974), for which he was awarded Best Screenplay by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. A classic tale of daring escape, which Charrière claimed was drawn from his own experiences of internment in French Guiana. £750.00