About the cover:
Half-fringed binding Black calf leather spine, cover covered with dark green paper, upper half glossy without centre rectangle, lower half mirrored with uncoated paper. Back cover reversed to front cover, gilt title on spine, gilt head edge, hand-stitched endpapers, endpapers on sheet of chamois uncoated paper, cover of transparent foil.
About the content:
Claude Morgan: La Marque de l'homme
With personal dedication by Morgan to Pierre Lucien Martin
Novel
Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris 1946 This first edition of the complete version of this captivity story was published in 1946, using only cheap wood-coloured paper. The work was first published in 1944 under the name Mortagne, Morgan's pseudonym, for which the author had to shorten the text by around half
About the artist: P.-L. Martin came to Paris at the age of 14 and attended the École Estienne with Charles Chanat and Robert Bonfils. After working for various bookbinders, he ended up at A.-J. Gonon in 1936, where he came into contact with painters and writers, which helped him in his development of binding designs. In 1940 he set up his own studio and received beautiful binding commissions from the bibliophile Rodocanachi. His skills were also recognised by the Société de la Reliure Originale, which awarded him a prize in 1948. He later became a member himself.
His style is characterised by geometric constructive rigour. Later, constructed lettering was added as a design element. His team included the gilders Robert Paris and Guy Rapheël, as well as Constant Dreneau as bookbinder.
