Georges DUHAMEL (1884-1966), writer. About 140 silver prints - Lot 330

Lot 330
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Estimation :
500 - 600 EUR
Georges DUHAMEL (1884-1966), writer. About 140 silver prints - Lot 330
Georges DUHAMEL (1884-1966), writer. About 140 silver prints made between 1901 and 1917, between 3.5 x 1.8 cm and 8 x 10.8 cm. A green percaline album, Italian style (11.5 x 16 cm), very damaged, intended as an amicorum gift to the doctor, poet and writer, Georges Duhamel. Most of the prints represent him (about 90). And the others concern his daily life during the Great War. About ten prints are included in a small later album. From 1914 onwards, Georges Duhamel was a medical officer in the "autochir", the ambulance service that came as close as possible to the front to help the wounded and direct them to orientation, evacuation or temporary hospitals. The doctor first campaigned in Champagne, then took part in the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme. The writer found time to recount the horror in two books: Vie des martyrs, published in 1917, which the press compared to Henri Barbusse's novel Le Feu. And above all, in April 1918, Civilisation was published, denouncing the ravages of war. Written in 1916, this text earned him the 1918 Goncourt Prize. In 1935, he was elected member of the Académie française and was its permanent secretary from 1944 to 1946. This set of photographs is a moving testimony, for the evocation of his youth, of which few images exist, and as an illustration of Civilisation, his masterpiece. On a sheet of paper that has escaped from the album is a dedication: To my old friend Georges Duhamel, / to his soul too high to forget, / this little album of old and common memories / A. Pastal [?] March 1911. Joint: Georges Duhamel. Des Légendes, des batailles, Paris, Édition de l'Abbaye, 1907. With 2 letters, one to Count Robert de MONTESQUIOU (1855-1921). Provenance: Robert de MONTESQUIOU.
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