GIDE, Andre (1869-1951). Si le Grain ne Meurt, Paris, [1947], 8vo, later blue cloth. "142e édition." PRESENTATION COPY of the author's autobiography, inscribed by the author to Anthony Eden.

GIDE, André (1869-1951).  Si le Grain ne Meurt. [Paris:] Gallimard, [1947]. 8vo (182 x 120mm). Half title (browned throughout, as usual with "war economy" paper). Later dark blue buckram [?bound for Anthony Eden], tan lettering-piece gilt, top edges gilt, new endpapers. Provenance: Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (modern armorial bookplate loosely-inserted). "142e édition". PRESENTATION COPY of the author's autobiography, inscribed on the half title, "à Anthony Eden, esaiativement mais cordialement, André Gide, Dec. 49." The sometimes scandalous nature of the work, first published in 1924, may have accounted for the author's tentativeness, expressed in the inscription, in presenting this copy to Anthony Eden. Gide had won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1947.