This cover for Joli brin d’amour has Humphrey Bogart on it. Right? No doubt about it, that’s him. The guy turns up everywhere. Joli brin d’amour, which means something like “pretty bit of love” or maybe “nice bit of love,” (French speakers, help us out with this one) was published in 1960 by Editions de Lutèce as part of its Les drames de la vie series. As far as we know, it was not written by the famous French author of adventures and fairytales Comtesse d’Aulnoy, aka Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, but we can’t identify the actual author (assuming D’Aulnoy is a pseudonym). No artist credit either. We’ll see if more info turns up later.
Update: We got a response from Miga almost immediately, who wrote:
“Since you asked for help, I’m not a linguist or anything but in my opinion the more appropriate choice would be “pretty bit of love.” The way I understand English, pretty is more used in the sense of beautiful, good looking, etc. As for nice it can apply to appearance but it seems to be used more in the sense of personality like kind. I can assure you, however that “petit brin d’amour” refers to exterior look and that petit is not a qualificative of love. Hope this helps!”
Thank you, Miga, for clarifying that for us. Much appreciated.