Item #5500 L'EVOLUTION CRÉATRICE; de Henri Bergson. Henri Bergson.
L'EVOLUTION CRÉATRICE; de Henri Bergson
L'EVOLUTION CRÉATRICE; de Henri Bergson
L'EVOLUTION CRÉATRICE; de Henri Bergson
L'EVOLUTION CRÉATRICE; de Henri Bergson

L'EVOLUTION CRÉATRICE; de Henri Bergson

Paris and Bruges: Les Presses du Compagnonnage / sous le patronage de L'Académie Suédoise et de La Fondation Nobel. 1962. Kischka. First French Edition of a Limited Edition: Text completely in FRENCH. Decorated & gilt-stamped cloth. Small 4to (7" x 9 1/4" x 1 1/2"), ivory pictorial cloth with gold lettering on spine and color design of overlaping floral garlands by Picasso on front cover; illustrated with 8 full-page lavishly colored plates by Kischka, plus a full-page B&W xylographic wood engraving depicting Bergson's face by Michel Cauvet [p.24].

Contents: 1) A short essay on Bergson's Nobel Prize by Dr. Kjell Strömberg; 2) an essay on the Nobel Reception by Per Hallström; 3) an important discussion on "La Vie et L'Œuvre de Henri Bergson" by Jean Guitton, a Member of the prestigious Académie Français; 4) a beautiful Kischka-illustrated printing of Bergson's major work: "L'Evolution Créatrice" [pp.37-340]; and 5) Bergson's Bibliography by Pierre Barkan; Burgundy endpapers, [i-viii], 9 - 344, [345, 346: blank] + [2] Table des Matiéres + [2] Colophon. Weight: 2 lbs. 7 oz. Near Fine / None. Item #5500

"La Collection des PRIX NOVEL de LITTERATURE est editée sous le patronage de L'Académie Suédoise et de La Fondation Nobel." That two prestigious foundations underwrote this fine limited French edition is noteworthy.

This limited French edition relating to Henri Bergson's Nobel Prize for Literature (with commentary and the text of HB's major work) was published as: A) 24 volumes on finest paper with suites of colored & numbered illustrations; B) 2,500 copies on finer paper with colored and numbered illustrations; and C) this larger edition (print-run size not specified) printed by Les Presses du Compagnonnage on "vélin blanc du Moulin de Saint-Roch." The last edition was reserved for members of "La Guilde des Bibliophiles."

This copy has three small stamp imprints of the "Congregation de Notre-Dame / Saint-Joseph d'Alma, P.Q."--perhaps of the Guild of Bibliophiles--on the front free endpaper, Dedication, Publication Credit preliminaries. There is also the neat ink signature of a previous owner on the upper right corner of the front free endpaper, and [her?] tiny initials on the Dedication front endpaper.

Henri-Louis Bergson (1859 – 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until World War II. Bergson is best known for "L'Evolution Créatrice, which advanced influential arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition were more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature and Creative Evolution in 1927.

A beautifully produced and illustrated volume. The artist [isis] Kischka--whose last name is redolent of Jewish matzo-stuffed sausages!--was born in 1908 to a French Jewish family and died in 1973 or 1974. He often painted in oils and his work has many Jewish and Holocaust themes.

About the French artist Michel Cauvet, who executed the B&W portrait of Bergson, we are less certain. He worked here using wood engravings or xylographs. If "Cauvet" also spelled his name "Chauvet," he also worked as a sculptor and may have been born in 1916 and died in 2001.

Condition: Apart from the minor indications of previous ownership on the front endpapers, the book is printed on quality paper with highly attractive, bright, clean, unfoxed and unsullied illustrations (viz., the fine full-page B&W etching of HB by Michel Cauvet, plus a suite of 8 full-color plates illustrating Bergson's Magnum Opus, L'Evolution Créatrice" by Kischka. The defects worth noting are a 3/8" clean nick at the lower edge of the spine and light age-toning to the covers.

Weight above 2 pounds so postage for shipment overseas will need to be determined.

Price: $145.00

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