BABOU, Hippolyte. *Les Payens innocents*. Short stories. - Lot 25

BABOU, Hippolyte. *Les Payens innocents*. Short stories. A rare copy from the library of Alfred Morin, bound in China paper, containing an autograph letter from the author. Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1858. In-12, brown half-maroquin, ribbed spine, gilt head. Binding signed by Victor Champs. XXII and 337 pp. Spine slightly faded, rare small foxing spots, mainly on the edges. First edition of this collection by literary critic Hippolyte Babou (1824–1878). A rare copy printed on China paper. Vicaire lists only 10 copies on heavy paper (Vicaire, I, 166). The short stories are set in the Pyrenees: *La gloriette*, *Le curé de Minerve*, *Le dernier flagellant*, *L'Hercule chrétien*, *Jean-de-l'Ours*, *Histoire de Pierre Azam*, *La chambre des belles saintes*. This copy contains an autograph letter signed by the author in which he requests an advance for his articles on “the minor poets of the seventeenth century” (1 page, in-8, in black ink on a double leaf, “Saturday morning,” “13 rue des Beaux-Arts”). The letter is likely addressed to Eugène Crépet, who, between 1861 and 1863, oversaw the publication of an anthology of French Poets to which Babou contributed alongside Charles Asselineau and Charles Baudelaire. A beautiful bookplate by Alfred Morin, etched with the motto “I owe everything to books. Manuel Les ouvriers,” based on a line borrowed from “Ouvrier de Manuel” by Edmond Valton, who signed the drawing. In fine condition, in a lovely signed binding.