MOREL (Émile). Les Gueules Noires. Preface by Paul Adam. Paris: Bibliothèque internationale d'édition, E. Sansot & Cie, 1907 -In-4, 242 x 181: frontispiece, 207 pp, (2 ff.), illustrated cover. Paperback, lined cover. Crauzat, 639 for the book and 269 to 285 for the lithographs. First edition illustrated with compositions by STEINLEN, comprising 40 woodcuts, including one on the title and 39 in the text, and 16 lithographs, including one on the cover, and 15 hors texte. "In a perfectly constructed composition, seven kaleidoscopically arranged stories take the reader to the pithead, coron and estaminet, up close and personal with a miner, a young sorter, a widow or a boss. Little by little, as we read, without any chronological elements or geographical references, the reader, immersed in a world of barely imaginable harshness, is overcome by emotion. Death, disease and human exploitation are omnipresent. A very accurate black text. Les Gueules noires was published shortly after the Courrières disaster, the second biggest mining catastrophe of all time, which claimed 1,099 lives in 1906". (Presentation of the work by Editions A propos, for the republication of the text in 2020, in collaboration with Dominique Simonnot and Philippe Kaenel). A copy of the current edition on laid paper, with a sanguine suite of 12 of the 15 out-of-text lithographs on japon. A very well preserved copy. - We enclose a second copy in blue half-chagrin by Claude Honnelaître, also on edition laid paper. The cover has been preserved in one piece. The title reads "Third Edition". Scattered foxing.