MÉRIMÉE Prosper. Essay on social warfare. Paris, Firmin Didot frères, 1841; in-8, [8]-403 pp, 3 plates, red long-grained half-maroquin with corners, gilt fillets, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt and cold motifs, gilt head (Ch. Lanoé). Rare first edition, not sold. In Lettres à une inconnue, Mérimée says: "I gave myself the innocent pleasure of printing a book without publishing it. Only 150 copies were printed: magnificent paper, pictures etc., and I gave it to the people I liked". The volume is decorated with three plates of medals. A precious copy bearing a signed autograph letter from Mérimée to Pierre-Simon Ballanche, friend of Chateaubriand and Joubert, of Mme Récamier and Mme de Staël. A writer, thinker and mystical philosopher, he was elected to the Académie française in 1842. A fine copy bound by Charles Lanoé, Ruban's successor. The copy has been enriched with 2 portraits and a map of the surroundings of ancient Rome. Carteret II, 148: "This book offered to friends of the author is very rare".