Henry Miller based this novella on his experiences as an American expatriate living in Paris, coupled with the Hungarian-born photographer Brassai's nocturnal photographs of the city. Brassai's ability to observe details and scenes that usually went unnoticed led Miller, who based a character in The Tropic of Cancer (1934) on him, to remark in The Wisdom of the Heart (1941) 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'.

First edition; 8vo (175 x 105 mm, 7 x 4¼ in); black-and-white photographs printed in gravure in the second state, matte as opposed to glossy, design by T. [Shinkichi] Tajiri, light toning to edges; illustrated wrappers printed in yellow, black, and grey, light wear to extremities, reading creases to spine, 'Librairie Leduc, Paris' bookseller's label on title-page, an excellent copy; [ii], 171, [5], with 30pp of gravure photographs (two double-page spreads).

Regards sur un siècle de photographie à travers Le Livre 111; 802 Books from the Auer Collection p364.