BRESSON, Henri.

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La Houille verte. First edition, a unique extra-illustrated presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the engineer Max de Nansouty, who wrote the preface. The 49 additional half-tone photographs were developed from those used in the text, and each is bound facing its half-tone reproduction. Bresson's inscription, which is on the first additional photograph, reads: "A mon tentateur pour le bon motif! (le seul exemplaire avec mes photos) 2 Juin 1906": "To my tempter for the right reason! (the only copy with my photos) 2 June 1906". The carefully positioned original photographs are each dated in his hand.Since the late 1880s, engineers had used a series of pipes and turbines to generate energy from glacial streams - a process known as white coal ("la houille blanche"). Bresson, a project manager for the Ministry of Agriculture, was among the first to use the term green coal ("la houille verte") to describe the similar processes applied to water springing from elevated grasslands.

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