Paris: Librairie Stock,, 1923. Presented to the first woman to receive the Académie française's Grand Prix de littérature First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "à Madame Henri de Régnier, avec mon amitié, ma reconnaissance, mon admiration profondes, Jean Cocteau, Mai 1923". The recipient, Marie de Régnier, was one of the most significant French women writers of the 20th century, and the first woman to be twice crowned by the Académie française. De Régnier (née de Heredia) was a prolific and immensely popular novelist and poet, and an important fixture in the literary milieu of 20th-century Paris. She was made a commander of the legion of honour and was elected president of the Académie Mallarme, of which Cocteau was also a member. The first woman to receive the Académie française's Grand Prix de littérature in 1918, she went on to become the first woman to be awarded twice by the Académie, with her receipt of the Grand Prix de Poésie in 1958. She wrote primarily under the pseudonym Gérard d'Houville, in an attempt to distance herself from the long shadows cast by both her father, José-Maria de Heredia, and her husband, Henri de Régnier, who were successful writers in their own right. Her nom de plume was an affectation, rather than an attempt to disguise her sex: it was common knowledge that d'Houville was a woman, with contemporary critics often referring to "Madame" Gérard d'Houville. "In 1910 when L'Intransigeant asked its reader to select the top three women writers deemed worthy to be members of the Académie française, they placed d'Houville in top position before Anna de Noailles and Colette" (Milligan). Her significant literary achievements are too-often disregarded in favour of her well-documented familial and sentimental relationships, including affairs with Pierre Louÿs, Edmond Jaloux, Gabriele D'Annunzio, and Henri Bernstein. This copy is from the library of the notable jurist and collector of poetry René Vandevoir (1892-1966), with his bookplate on the front pastedown. Octavo. Finely bound by Devauchelle in near-contemporary red half morocco, raised bands and gilt lettering on spine, marbled sides and endpapers, top edge gilt, fore edge untrimmed. With original pink paper wrappers bound in. French newspaper clipping printing five poems by Cocteau loosely inserted. Spine faintly sunned, a few spots of foxing to pp. [vii-viii]. A fine copy. Jennifer E. Miligan, The Forgotten Generation: French Women Writers of the Inter-war Period, 1996.
