Mémoires di Géant
Paris: E. Dentu, 1864. 8vo. [i-xvi; I]-XX; [21-]439, [1 ]. Text in French. Publisher's pictorial wrappers, largely unopened (slight lean to spine, tear at edge of front cover, moderate creases, wear and soiling, moderate foxing to bulked edges and front and rear pages). Item #410203
First edition. A superior copy and quite scarce in the original wrappers. Nadar, in addition to being the most famous French photographer of his time, was also a caricaturist who relished his own celebrity. He had an enormous hot air balloon, Le Geant, which came with a gondola and a photographic studio, a print room, two cabins, a storeroom, and a lavatory. The present work describes its brief but glorious career, including the not-so glorious crash in Hanover, in 1863, that seriously injured his wife.
Price: $1,200.00