MAIL DISINFECTION IN FRANCE AND OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
History, regulations, lazarettos, means
New edition, revised and augmented
Guy DUTAU
A4, 870 pages ; ISBN 978-2-9574406-0-3
95 euros (exckuding postage and handling)
Printed at the author’s expenses
Estimated publication date : March 2021
For about sixty years, no comprehensive book had dealt with disinfected (or ‘purified’) mail in France and in the countries or territories it occupied or conquered. Guy DUTAU, who actively investigates these letters (and their contents) since more than 30 years, published in 2017 a reference book (676 pages) on this topic, which was reprinted a year later. This volume is now entirely out of print, but still encounters a steady demand. Furthermore, readers have been many to contribute new information, and the author himself, carrying on his own research, came across several as yet uncovered documents. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, responsible for COVID-19, also highlighted striking parallels with a number of former pandemics or epidemics, such as those of smallpox or of the so called ‘Spanish flu’ (1918-1919) caused by the H1N1 variant of the influenza virus, which had been more or less forgotten but deserved to be re-analysed. Finally, in its original version, the book did not contain any indications allowing collectors to assess the rarity of the letters they found, let alone their monetary value.
This is why, after over a year of passionate work, Guy DUTAU now offers this second edition, entirely revised and expanded with many as yet unpublished documents, to all lovers of postal history, and of history at large. True to his belief that ‘the letters contents must be part of the philatelic and historical exploitation of the material that enters our collections’, he included in it all the above-mentioned additions. Likewise, all documents, letters, maps etc. included in this book are reproduced in full colour with captions in French and in English ; English translations are also provided for the extended summary of each chapter, and for the many entries into the annexes of each of these chapters.
Guy Dutau, RDP, FRPSL, is a member of Académie de Philatélie (Paris), of Académie Européenne de Philatélie, and foreign corresponding member of the Belgian Philatelic Academy. Belgique.
To contact the author
05 62 17 12 14
06 15 72 19 25
Guy DUTAU 9, rue Maurice Alet
31499 Toulouse (France)