New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927. dj. Hardcover first edition - First American publication of this novel by this avant-garde writer, who later found more success as a playwright - "a love story behind which can be glimpsed the rivalry between two statesmen, a nationalist and an internationalist. Thus, what was to become the central theme of GiraudouxÕs plays was made clear: a pair of opposites, whatever they might be" (Brittanica) Author Mavis Gallant commented that he "was praised, as the author of a kind of dragonfly prose that is absolutely unlike any other, by everyone he might have cared about, from Gide to Proust, Colette to Sartre. He was also damned, by critics whose names mean nothing today. Americans who do not remember much about Giraudoux certainly know some of his plays: 'Tiger at the Gates,' and the 'The Madwoman of Chaillot'." Gallant (writing in the NY Times in 1972) went on to ask " ' Who reads Giraudoux now?' would have been a good question for the fifties and sixties. Now, there are faint signs of a revival. ÒTiger at the GatesÓ played to full houses, largely of young people, last season, and when ÒLa Menteuse,Ó his posthumous novel, was published in 1969 the reviews were ecstatic. Also, the revolutionary left, if you please, is now patting his head and saying he was with them all along." Maybe it is time for another revival - or rediscovery. Translated from the French by J. F. Scanlon. Borzoi endpapers, art deco dust jacket art. 256 pp.

New York: Farrar & Rinehart, (1930). Hardcover - Fred Puleston ran away from home at 17 and went to Africa as an agent for Hattan & Cookson he stayed there off and on for 14 years: 1882 to 1896. This book - which describes those experiences - includes some surprising statements - For example "All white men (except missionaries) of his acquaintance in the Congo had black 'harems'."[one to three native girls - he approved the custom.] Cannibalism was common among the blacks; three of Agent Puleston's friends were eaten. Twice he met Explorer Stanley, "discoverer" of Livingstone. Other chapters deal with witch doctors, and in one he contrasts slavery in Africa as practiced by Africans versus that of white men, whom he accuses of turning two islands into "hell holes." Puleston is also known as one who exposed Alfred Aloysius ("Trader") Horn. Indignation at the gross ignorance of Congo Africa which he detected in the "Horn-books" caused Dr. Puleston (then a prosperous Miami, Florida physician) to exclaim to friends, "I can't believe this man was ever in the Congo!" Illustrated with fantastic art deco paintings and drawings by Andre Durenceau (as one commentator noted "his illustrations tended towards the provocative, and even at times the erotic and grotesque.") including a color frontispiece and endpapers, 5 black and white glossy full page plates and several small drawings at the tail of some of the chapters. 318 pp.