Louise Michel. Le Livre du jour de l’an. Historiettes, contes et légendes pour les enfants. Paris, J. Brare, 1872. In-12. 118 pp., [1] p. of table, [1] p. publisher’s catalogue. Publisher’s green percaline, spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, gilt plate ornament on upper board, cold framing on covers.
Extremely rare first edition, republished the following year; on her return from exile in 1884, Louise Michel republished a number of historiettes in her collection Contes et Légendes pour les enfants.
Le Livre du jour de l’an was written in prison, in Auberive, in 1872, where the revolutionary was awaiting deportation to New Caledonia following her arrest the previous year.
She was already known as a Commune activist, the ‘Red Virgin’, but also as a teacher who had set up a free school based on republican principles in the 1850s. The book was published thanks to a Parisian inspector friend of hers, M. de Fleurville, the school inspector for Montmartre. These moral tales aimed at improving her young readers with a view to a better world are the only writings left by the author during this period of intense literary activity.
With an exceptional autograph dedication signed by the author: « Contes d’une petroleuse de 1871 aux petroleurs de 18.. Louise Michel » [Tales from a “petroleuse” in 1871 to the “petroleurs” of 18…], echoing the address in the title: « Enfants, vous êtes l’avant / Soyez justes : tout est là. » [Children, you are the future / Be fair: it’s all there].
The “pétroleuse” was the woman who, during the Commune of 1871, was said to have poured petrol on certain buildings to hasten fires. The term then came to be used more colloquially to describe a woman who was a member of a trade union, an association or a party and who demonstrated her militancy with passion, as Louise Michel was.
During the Commune, as an ambulance driver and fighter, she fired her weapon in Issy, Clamart and Chaussée Clignancourt.
Nicknamed the “Red Virgin”, she became the embodiment of the “pétroleuse”.
Percaline a little faded, corners slightly dented, upper inner hinge fragile. A good copy however.
Extremely rare edition with an exceptional dedication.
4 500 €