Nouvelle anthologie, ou Choix de chansons anciennes et nouvelles

Title: Nouvelle anthologie, ou Choix de chansons anciennes et nouvelles

Author: Castel, L.

Publication: Paris: Lebigre Frères, 1833.

Description: Pocket-sized anthology of French song lyrics. Engraved frontispiece portrait. Rebound by Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen, Anne Frank's best friend, in full olive cloth over boards, with original printed paper wrappers pasted on covers, marbled endpapers, and binder's printed paper label on front pastedown. 16mo; 4.5 x 2.75 inches; ix, [2], 12-511, [1] pages, [1] leaf of plates; [1]^8 2-30^8 [31]^16. Moderate foxing, damp-staining, and variation in page sizes, but the binding crisp and clean. Very Good overall.

Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen (1929 -) is best known for being Anne Frank's best friend. In June 1942, Anne wrote in her diary: "Jacqueline van Maarsen, whom I only just got to know at the Jewish Lyceum, is now my best friend." She is also referred to as Jopie in the diary. The van Maarsen family survived the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, when Jacqueline's formerly Catholic mother convinced the authorities that they were not Jewish and that the J" should be removed from their identity cards. 

After the war, van Maarsen was one of the first people to whom Anne's father Otto Frank showed Anne's diary. The diary includes a goodbye letter from Frank to van Maarsen. After the war, van Maarsen trained in bookbinding in Paris and became an award-winning bookbinder. She successfully hid her identity as Frank’s best friend for decades, embracing the anonymity of working in her binding studio and using her married name Sanders. After noticing that some individuals were taking advantage of Anne Frank’s story for their own benefit, van Maarsen felt obliged to go public with her identity and "to write for the one who could no longer write." She then reclaimed the van Maarsen name and wrote five books about Anne Frank and the dangers of antisemitism.