Louis Michel Thibault 1750-1815 - Huguette Roy De Puyfontaine

1972 large format hardcover with dust jacket and 144 pages in good condition.

However, a note from the publishers reads: "This historic work . . . was offered by the author as a token of goodwill towards Thibault's adopted country for first publication in South Africa. Madame H de Puyfontaine wrote the manuscript in Cape Town during 1969 and 1970 in French, the language of most of Thibault's documents in the Cape Archives Depot. She was assisted by J W Louw and M E de Villiers in the preparation of the text in English."

The author, a decorated officer of the French resistance in the second world war, who was made a chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in 1970, begins her preface thus: "Only sparse pages devoted to Louis Michel Thibault existed in various books and periodicals when I began my research at the Cape Archives Depot of his official correspondence addressed over well-nigh thirty-three years to the various personalities with whom he had collaborated." Later, she writes: " . . . I shall deal only with those works of Thibault of which I have found proof that he had indeed been the creator." And after enumerating Thibault's skills and versatility, she ends her preface: "Why then did 'vraie gloire' come to him only after his death? Question and answer is the theme of this book."