KESSEL (Joseph). Bachir's sloughi. Autograph manuscript, unsigned, undated (1955). 43 leaves recto (approx. 13 x 21 cm), some with corrections on verso; in place of a cover, a card stamped with the initials GB in cold with a handwritten title, and a blank f. in fine. Rusty paperclip markings to first and last leaves, with small holes and a few letters missing from last leaf; lateral wetness to some leaves. Complete manuscript, first draft, with numerous erasures and corrections. This little-known text is an additional chapter to the collection "Au grand Socco"; the title written on the first leaf "Manuscrit petit âne blanc, Sloughi bachir" makes the link with this first work. "From who knows where, a strange animal had broken through the swarming Grand Socco in a few leaps of astonishing speed and strength, to stand in front of Bachir. This animal had the thinness, profile and relaxation of the sloughis, but was much taller and bigger than most desert dogs and wore a striped coat like a tiger's." (f. 9). Published in serial form from the summer of 1951, then by Gallimard in June 1952, "Au grand Socco" brought together 7 stories told to the crowds by a little hunchback, young Bachir, in the Place du Grand Socco in Tangiers. This new and final part of the young storyteller's adventures first appeared in a very abridged version in 2 issues of "Elle" magazine, on 2 and 9 May 1955, under the title "Le Sourire de l'amour" (The Smile of Love); it was then included in 1974 in the Œuvres complètes, tome XV (Rombaldi), following "Au grand Socco", in a defective version based on a typescript that gave a sometimes approximate reading of the text. "Bachir's last adventures are divided between the appearance of a wild greyhound (the sloughi) and the illness of little Aïcha, whom the young storyteller almost lets die in the desert [before saving her], as he is only interested in the new places and characters he meets in the Moroccan south" (Pléiade, II, p.1648). The version given in this manuscript was not published until 2020 (Œuvres de Kessel, Pléiade, II, pp. 199-225).