Brassaï's ability to observe details and scenes that usually went unnoticed led Henry Miller, who based a character in The Tropic of Cancer (1934) on him, to remark in his essay 'L'oeil de Paris' that he 'has that rare gift which so many artists despise - normal vision. He has no need to distort or deform, no need to lie or to preach When you met the man you see at once that he is equipped with no ordinary eyes. His eyes have that perfect, limpid sphericity, that all-embracing voracity which makes the falcon or the shark a shuddering sentinel of reality'.
This is the first book Robert Delpire published. It was issued as no. 5 in his Neuf series, which began in June 1950 when Delpire, then still a medical student, became editor-in-chief of the Maison de la Medicine's cultural bulletin for its doctors. Delpire would go on to edit and publish a number of important books including Robert Frank's Les Américains in 1958.

First edition; 4to (269 × 210 mm, 10½ x 8¼ in); black-and-white photographs and drawings, texts by Brassai and Henry Miller; plain endpapers, red cloth-covered boards, spine lettered in black, photographic reproduction with yellow text mounted on upper board, near-fine; [84]pp.