LARGUIER (Léo). - Lot 183

LARGUIER (Léo). Low Rents and Ivory Towers. Photographs by Jean Roubier. Paris, Éditions du Bateau Ivre, n.d. [circa 1946–1948]. Oblong folio, paperback, cloth-bound cover. First edition of this beautiful album dedicated to the homes of Parisian writers and poets, in which the texts by Léo Larguier (1878–1950), a member of the Académie Goncourt, interact with the photographs by Jean Roubier (1896–1986), one of France’s leading photographers of architecture, monuments, and cultural heritage. Through a series of views of buildings, facades, courtyards, staircases, and interiors, the book evokes the modest or famous residences that were home to the great figures of French literature. The photographs, marked by great simplicity, offer a precious record of a Paris that has now disappeared or been profoundly transformed. Notably featured are the homes of Paul Verlaine, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Villon, Balzac, and many other writers mentioned by Larguier in a text imbued with nostalgia. The heliogravure reproductions, printed on fine paper, attest to the editorial expertise of Le Bateau Ivre, a publisher specializing in high-quality illustrated books in the aftermath of World War II. Condition: cover slightly discolored with minor wear on the spine; interior in very good condition.