KESSEL (Joseph). L'Equipage. Paris : Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, 1923. - In-16, 185 x 118: (1 blank f.), 217 pp. (3 ff. last blank), printed cover. - Beige half-percaline with bradel, smooth spine decorated with a chocolate title, cover and spine preserved (G. Gauché). First edition of this novel inspired by the First World War, which was the first success of Joseph Kessel (1898-1979). Aviation entered for the first time in French literature. One of 792 numbered copies on Lafuma-Navarre vellum paper reserved for the friends of the first edition, this one being one of the 30 offprints (n° 770). LÉON DAUDET'S ISSUE, enriched with this autograph dispatch from the author in mauve pencil: À Monsieur Léon Daudet, admirable French writer in deferential homage to Joseph KesselAt the end of the book, seven leaves are bound in, one of which includes a portrait of Kessel, from the fourth volume of Léon Daudet's book published in 1928, entitled Écrivains et Artistes . It is the notice that Daudet devoted to Joseph Kessel; he praises L'Équipage and its author: "This time, I would like to point out to you another master book, a novel on war aviation, and by a fine writer [...] A novel? I should say a drama, because this fast and flamboyant prose, where the dialogue has the clash of swords, is such on paper that on stage, if we still had a French stage... ". A very well preserved copy, in a sober binding by Gauché. Provenance : Léon Daudet, with autograph sending of the author. - Ex-libris MD. Attached, by the same author : - Les Cœurs pur. Paris : Nouvelle Revue Française, 1927. - In-4 tellière, blue half-maroquin with long grain in the bradel, smooth spine, not trimmed, cover and spine kept (binding of the time). First edition. One of the 111 copies of the first edition reprinted in the in-4 tellière format, numbered on Lafuma-Navarre laid paper, this one being one of the 100 destined for the Bibliophiles de la Nouvelle Revue Française, specially printed for M. Méric. Spine faded and rubbed.