Description

RARE ORIGINAL EDITION of the very first book published by Éditions de Minuitpublished under the occupation 350 copies. A first edition copy with the error "déguigandé" in the fourth line of the first page of text.

"A literary masterpiece of exemplary sobriety in both plot and style, Le Silence de la mer (The Silence of the Sea) tells the story of a French family who refuse to compromise with the cultured German officer who has taken up residence in their home. This manual of good manners for the occupied, a veritable bombshell against the politics of collaboration, is Jean Bruller's first story published under the pseudonym Vercors, and the founding work of Éditions de Minuit."
(Biography of Éditions de Minuit, Henri Vignes, n°1)

PRIÈRE D'INSÉRERER Manifesto of Éditions de Minuit written by Pierre Lescure, whose editorial positioning resonates with Vercors' text:

In another era, people were exiled for preferring Euripides' Phaedra to Racine's Gloire de la France, the tyrant of the day claimed. Today, Einstein's physics, Freud's psychology and Isaiah's songs are banned. It is forbidden to reprint Meredith, Thomas Hardy, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, Henry James, Faulkner and all the others we love. "Don't display Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Shelley, the English poets and novelists of all time in your shop windows", the Booksellers' Union has ordered. As for literature

French, it was "restricted" from entering Belgium, Holland and Greece, wherever the New Europe was being organised. In September 1940, the Syndicat des Éditeurs signed "a censorship agreement with the occupying authorities". A warning to the public stated: "By signing this agreement, the German authorities wanted to show their confidence in publishing. The Publishers, for their part, were keen to give French thought the power to continue its mission while respecting the rights of the victor", and "the German authorities welcomed the initiative of the Publishers".

Publishers".

At another time in French history, prefects "cancelled" writers who refused to praise their master. The master said of others: "I opened my antechambers to them and they rushed in."
There are still writers in France who are not familiar with the antechambers and refuse to be dictated to. They feel deeply that thought must be expressed. To influence other thoughts, no doubt, but above all because, if it does not express itself, the mind dies.
That is the aim of Éditions de Minuit. Propaganda is not our business. We intend to preserve our inner life and freely serve our art. Names don't matter. It is no longer a question of small personal renown. It's not about a difficult path. It's about the spiritual purity of man.