Adams [Star Turn]

Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1926. First French Edition, preceding all others. Copy No. 1 of seven copies on Japon, numbered 1-5, and two hors commerce copies numbered HCI and HCII. Warmly inscribed by the author on the half-title page: "a Monsieur Brun / qui a si cordialement accueilli mon debut. / Avec la reconnaisance de René Clair," translating roughly to "To Mr. Brun / Who so cordially welcomed my debut. / With appreciation, René Clair." Published about a year after Clair's film debut, "The Phantom of Moulin-Rouge" ("Le fantome du Moulin-Rouge") and translated ten years later in English as "Star Turn" by Chatto and Windus, in a hardcover edition.

The great French film director's first book, a novel about a film star who becomes lost in his own character, and devises a scheme to make a film with God as a means of escape. Clair's evocative, fantastical style echoed the work of his American counterpart, Frank Borzage, and was a monstrous influence on the French New Wave.

Some very slight wear to the first leaf from earlier erasures, else Fine and unread. A spectacular copy.

[Book #131846]