About this Item
Translated from the French by Warre Bradley Wells. New York: Random House, 1947. Book Club Edition (BCE), published the same year as the first American edition.
A compelling post-war psychological novel by Roger Vercel (1894-1957), the acclaimed French novelist and recipient of the Prix Goncourt for Capitaine Conan (1934). Best known in English for Tides of Mont St.-Michel, Vercel specialized in richly atmospheric historical and psychological fiction rooted in the Breton landscape. Madman's Memory follows Françoise, a young widow struggling to escape the emotional grip of her late husband's memory while confronting family expectations, new love, and long-buried secrets. The novel combines literary realism with mounting psychological suspense and remains one of Vercel's scarcer English-language translations.
This copy is a 1947 Random House Book Club Edition, confirmed by the 'Book Club Edition' designation printed on the jacket flap. Bound in burgundy cloth with black spine label and silver lettering. The book itself is in Near Fine condition, remaining clean, square, and tightly bound with fresh pages showing only light, age-appropriate toning. No ownership inscriptions or library markings were observed, and the text block remains remarkably well preserved.
The original dust jacket is present and retains attractive color despite significant wear. It grades Fair to Good-, with large chips along the upper edge of the front panel and spine, additional losses at the lower edge, several long closed tears, heavy creasing, edge wear, and notable loss to the interior flaps. Even with these flaws, the jacket remains complete enough to display well and preserves the striking original artwork by Riki Levinson.
Roger Vercel was the pen name of Roger Crétin, a distinguished French novelist born in Le Mans in 1894. His studies were interrupted by World War I, during which he served as a stretcher-bearer and later as an army officer - experiences that profoundly influenced his writing. After the war he earned a doctorate in literature and spent much of his career teaching in Dinan, Brittany.
Although he seldom went to sea himself, Vercel became celebrated for his vivid maritime fiction set along the coast of Brittany. His reputation was firmly established when he received France's highest literary honor, the Prix Goncourt in 1934 for Capitaine Conan, a novel later adapted into Bertrand Tavernier's acclaimed 1996 film. Madman's Memory is representative of his psychological fiction, combining literary realism with rich regional atmosphere and emotional depth.
Riki Levinson was an accomplished American graphic artist, calligrapher, and book designer whose career spanned more than five decades. She began as an assistant to the Bauhaus-trained designer Herbert Binder before establishing her own New York design studio, where she became known for creating memorable dust jackets for major publishers. Among the best-known books she designed are the jackets for John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage and William Faulkner's A Fable.
Later in her career Levinson served as Art Director for Western Publishing and subsequently Art Director and Associate Publisher for E. P. Dutton's Children's Books. She also became an award-winning children's author, writing Watch the Stars Come Out and numerous other acclaimed picture books. Her jacket for Madman's Memory is an excellent example of her early postwar design work, using bold typography and an expressive, painterly landscape to evoke the novel's emotional tension.
Seller Inventory # F.VER.1947.1
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