Grand openings!
Starting a series on book design, I like to present you a book I bought on a flea market only for its great opening pages. From the cover to the first actual lines of the novel, the designer of Les saints vont en enfer (Saints go to hell) leads us towards the story with an entry that recalls the French cinéma noir of the early fifties. It is not about gangsters though, but a social drama about a worker-priest.
Gilbert Cesbron – Les saints vont en enfer
Club Mondial du Livre
Written in 1951, this must be a later edition for a book club with subscription, but definitely edited in the fifties. The colofon says: présentation: Jean Garcia. Could this be the designer?