8vo. Original wrappers printed in orange and black (light sunning to extremities).

FIRST FRENCH EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK, one of 100 hors commerce copies, from a total edition of 2750 copies printed on velin blanc sudois. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY McCULLERS to the French author Francis Ambrière. Ambrière (1907-1998) was selected for the Prix Goncourt in 1940 for his book Les Grandes Vacances. “No matter what the age of the author, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter would be a remarkable book. When one reads that Carson McCullers is a girl of 22 it becomes… something beyond that, something more akin to the vocation of pain to which a great poet is born” (New York Times, Carson at 100).