Resistance, Rebellion, and Death First Edition - Albert Camus - Bauman Rare Books

Resistance, Rebellion, and Death

Albert CAMUS

Item#: 118826 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Resistance, Rebellion, and Death

"THE MOST NOBLE WITNESS OF A RATHER IGNOBLE AGE"

CAMUS, Albert. Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. London: Hamish Hamilton, (1961). Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition in English of a volume of 23 essays chosen by Camus in the last year of his life.

"Montaigne wore around his neck, we are told, a medallion on which was written que sais-je?—'what do I know?'—the ultimate skeptic's question. Centuries later Camus took that question and moved it forward into a kind of philosophical action" (Stern, in Cardozo Studies V10:2). Camus, who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature, died in a car accident in January 1960. He remains "in the prescient words of one critic, 'the most noble witness of a rather ignoble age'… In all his uncertainty and his ambivalence, with his limitations and his reticence, Camus got it right where so many others went astray for so long" (Judt, Burden of Responsibility, 135). The 23 essays in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death, chosen by Camus in the last year of his life, were those "he considered most worthy of preservation in English" (Introduction). They bear "witness to the passionately scrupulous sense of responsibility which made Camus the kind of man and the kind of writer he was" (Christian Science Monitor). Contains essays first appearing in French in Lettres (1948), Actuelles (1950), Actuelles II (1953) and Actuelles III (1958), along with other select works and interviews. With translation by Justin O'Brien. Portrait of Camus by noted photographer Izis Bidermanas on dust jacket rear panel. Issued together with first American edition: no priority established. Owner signature dated year of publication.

Book fine; trace of edge-wear to bright about-fine dust jacket.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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