Jean COCTEAUBiblio.com
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196386003Fréjus 1963. Fine. Fréjus 17 Avril 1963 21.50 x 27.50 cm une page Autograph letter dated and signed by Jean Cocteau 20 lines in black ink on letterhead of the committee for the edification of the chapel of Notre-Dame de Jérusalem de Fréjus. Fold marks inherent to postal dispatch one tear in left margin of the letter at the level of the fold. Jean Cocteau offers profuse apologies while acknowledging mitigating circumstances regarding the emotional burden overwhelming him: ""J'accepte vos reproches avec beaucoup de honte. Mais si je pouvais vous raconter la période que je traverse votre coeur me comprendrait et m'absoudrait."" ""I accept your reproaches with great shame. But if I could tell you about the period I am going through your heart would understand and absolve me."" due to a recently deceased friendship about which he does not wish to reveal more: ""N'en parlons plus et priez pour moi."" ""Let us speak no more of it and pray for me."" Jean Cocteau prefers to discuss his projects: ""Actuellement je me consacre à mon travail de la chapelle du Saint-Sépulcre. Quand je l'aurai construite peinte et rendue digne des chevaliers de Jérusalem je me remettrait sic peut-être à écrire."" ""Currently I am devoting myself to my work on the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. When I have built it painted it and made it worthy of the knights of Jerusalem I will perhaps start writing again."" and the prospects that delight him: ""Il est probable que je resterais après Pâques à Fréjus où les organisateurs m'offrent une petite villa."" ""It is likely that I will remain after Easter in Fréjus where the organizers are offering me a small villa."" unknown
191174318s. l.: S. n. 1911. Fine. S. n. s. l. 8 Avril 1911 27 x 21.50 cm deux pages sur une feuille Autograph letter dated April 8 1911 and signed by the dandy count of two pages on one recto-verso sheet 19 lines written in black ink inviting his friend Henri Lapauze and his wife for an Easter luncheon on the 18th of the current month at his property in the Landes near Vic-Bigorre. Robert de Montesquiou in order to secure his invited friend's decision and to facilitate his travel offers to put a vehicle at his disposal. But before this proposed Easter meal the poet plans to visit his friend very soon. Henry Lapauze 1867-1925 was a journalist art critic then in 1905 curator of the Petit Palais converted four years earlier into a museum and whose collections he considerably enriched by acquiring notably the Courbet Henner Falguière collections with at the twilight of his life a clear predilection for the Decorative Arts of which he was one of the ardent promoters. S. n. unknown
197684669Paris 1976. Fine. Paris 12 Octobre 1976 21 x 29.50 cm une page recto verso Autograph letter dated and signed by Jacques Mesrine dated Tuesday October 12 1976 70 lines in blue ink on one recto-verso page addressed to his love of the time Jeanne Schneider thanks to whom the manuscript of Instinct de mort was discreetly smuggled out of prison. Jacques Mesrine then incarcerated at La Santé shows great tenderness and reveals himself in another light that of the affectionate and attentive lover: ""Bonsoir petite fille. tu aimes bien jouer ""au St Bernard"" tu ne changeras jamais à ce sujet. C'est toi qui a 7 ans 1/2 de taule et tu dois remonter le moral des ""gamines"" qui ont joué du calibre !"" ""Good evening little girl. you like to play 'the St Bernard' you'll never change about that. You're the one who has 7 and a half years of jail and you have to cheer up the 'girls' who played with guns!"" He praises and is somewhat amazed by his companion's devotion to a couple of young criminals: ""Tu me parles d'une sentence de 20 ans pour elle ! tu rigoles ou quoi. elle ne peut pas prendre plus de 8 ans je la vois plutôt avec 5 ou 6 si les choses s'arrangent. Son mari avec 20 ans au maximum."" ""You talk to me about a 20-year sentence for her! are you kidding or what. she can't get more than 8 years I see her more with 5 or 6 if things work out. Her husband with 20 years maximum."" and tries to transmit all his optimism his pugnacity and to cheer her up: ""Tu sais ma puce; quand tu m'écris que la cause de Michou est une cause perdue d'avance je ne te comprends plus. Il n'y a pas de cause perdue d'avance. Dans la vie il faut se battre jusqu'au bout. tu sais pourtant ce que cela représente. Tu vois moi je vais au maximum ! et pourtant je vais me défendre toutes dents dehors. Car ma liberté il faudra me la prendre. Je ne la donnerai pas faute de combat !"" ""You know my darling; when you write to me that Michou's cause is a lost cause from the start I don't understand you anymore. There is no lost cause from the start. In life you have to fight to the end. you know what that represents though. You see I'm going for the maximum! and yet I'm going to defend myself tooth and nail. Because my freedom will have to be taken from me. I won't give it up for lack of fighting!"" Jacques Mesrine also evokes his love of horse racing while boasting of being a betting specialist: ""Oui j'avais joué ""Dernier tango"" mais seulement à la place. J'avais 2000frs dessus je gagne donc 6000frs. Ce n'est pas de la chance mais un savant calcul. Il m'arrive de perdre mais avec ma méthode je suis obligé d'être gagnant. Forécement pour la suivre il faut un certain capital. J'ai mis plus d'un an à faire tous les calculs de probabilité. Cela doit me rapporter à peu près 7000frs par mois. Net d'impots sic."" ""Yes I had bet on 'Dernier tango' but only for place. I had 2000frs on it so I win 6000frs. It's not luck but a scientific calculation. I sometimes lose but with my method I have to be a winner. Obviously to follow it you need a certain capital. I spent more than a year doing all the probability calculations. It should bring me about 7000frs per month. Net of taxes sic."" He ironizes about his situation as a prisoner having plenty of time to devise his financial gain strategies: ""J'ai aussi mis au point une méthode pour le jeu de baccara. Que veux-tu. j'ai le temps de calculer un tac de choses sic ! Tu me comprends . L'administration aussi ! resic. "" ""I also developed a method for baccarat. What do you want. I have time to calculate a bunch of things sic! You understand me . The administration too! resic."" but deplores his impossibility to continue writing Instinct de mort: "". je suis actuellement incapable d'écrire une page de mon bouquin. je ne sais pas comment tourner ce passage-là. enfin je vais bien trouver la solution."" "". I am currently unable to write a page of my book. I don't know how to phrase this passag unknown
190478907s. l. Paris 1904. Fine. s. l. Paris s. d. ca. 1904 11.50 x 15.90 cm 4 pages sur un double feuillet Autograph letter from Renée Vivien addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney and written in black ink on a double sheet bordered with a violet trim. Transverse fold inherent to mailing. A beautiful love letter marking the reconciliation of the Muse of Violets and the Amazon after a two-year separation: ""Your letter was cruelly sweet to me I wept reading it and something within me rejoiced despite everything to think that between us the bond was so powerful and subtle that only death could entirely untie it if death is definitive."" Weary and very jealous of Natalie's infidelities Renée had made the radical decision to leave her. The Amazon had then by every means attempted to win her back sending emissaries as well as numerous letters: ""My tears have flowed over all the letters you have sent me since the silence that had settled between us."" Renée seems this time to have broken her promise never to see Natalie again and addresses this beautiful declaration to her full of hope for the future: ""Forget you! But my lips which are the soul of my soul have kept your reflection and your imprint. . Something in me has been broken since then from having loved too blindly. But if it is true that there remain within us unknown tenderness and ignored sweetness that we can still lavish upon each other in a better future let us not hesitate to discover them in the depths of our souls. I would like to take you in my arms my Little One like a sick child and rock you and console you and heal you and see the smiles of yesteryear bloom again on your lips. You must no longer suffer for me my Blonde Sweetness I love you I will heal you."" These reunions would not last however: torn between Baroness Hélène de Zuylen and Natalie Renée would embark on a series of travels; in turn to Holland Germany Switzerland and Venice she would confide her hesitations to Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha her epistolary companion from the Bosphorus whom she would meet in the summer of 1905 during her last journey with Natalie Clifford Barney to Mytilene. A moving letter from Renée Vivien addressed to the great love of her life. It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney ""cette Américaine plus souple qu'une écharpe dont l'étincelant visage brille de cheveux d'or de prunelles bleu de mer de dents implacables"" ""this American more supple than a scarf whose sparkling face shines with golden hair sea-blue eyes implacable teeth"" Colette Claudine à Paris. Natalie who had just experienced a summer idyll with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée on the other hand was completely captivated by the young American and would relate this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: « J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort. » ""I evoked the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her mortal steel eyes her sharp blue eyes like a blade. I had the obscure prescience that this woman was giving me fate's order that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanat unknown
195076186s. l. Klarskovgaard 1950. Fine. s. l. Klarskovgaard 7 octobre 1950 21 x 34 cm 2 pages sur 2 feuillets Partly unpublished autograph letter signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline addressed to his ""dear Master and defender"" Maître Thorvald Mikkelsen. Two pages written in blue ink on two large sheets of white paper; numbers ""580"" and ""581"" in Céline's hand in the upper left corner in red pencil. Transverse folds inherent to the mailing. This letter was very partially transcribed in the Année Céline 2005. Autograph letter signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline addressed to his ""dear Master and defender"" Maître Thorvald Mikkelsen. Two pages written in blue ink on two large sheets of white paper; numbers ""580"" and ""581"" in Céline's hand in the upper left corner in red pencil. Transverse folds inherent to the mailing. Céline sends Mikkelsen an article: ""Pour intéressé que vous soyez aux choses de l'esprit je crois avoir remarqué que les turlupinades des banques changes fricoteries diverses vous amusaient aussi. Ci-donc joint article assez farceur relatant certaines galipettes de l'or et ses escrocs changeurs à Paris évidemment !"" ""However interested you may be in matters of the mind I believe I have noticed that the buffooneries of banks exchanges and various swindles also amuse you. Here therefore attached is a rather farcical article relating certain antics of gold and its swindling money-changers in Paris obviously!"" The writer attached to his letter another sheet whose numerous underlinings bear witness to the persecution he felt victim to: ""Maintenant qu'on remonte la Ligne Maginot qu'on recrée une Légion Anti Bolchéviques une armée franco-allemande il paraît qu'il est question de me poursuivre à nouveau d'après les Beaux Draps mais cette fois pour antigermanisme et sabotage de l'Europe Nouvelle et irrespect pour Hitler ! Oh je n'en mène pas large !"" ""Now that they're rebuilding the Maginot Line recreating an Anti-Bolshevik Legion a Franco-German army it seems they're planning to prosecute me again based on Les Beaux Draps but this time for anti-Germanism and sabotage of the New Europe and disrespect for Hitler! Oh I'm not feeling very confident!"" In 1947 Céline pursued by French justice for his collaborationist involvement was confined in Denmark. It was in May 1948 accompanied by Lucette and Bébert that he arrived at his lawyer Maître Thorvald Mikkelsen's home in Klarskovgaard. The latter owned a large property by the Baltic Sea and invited the exile to stay there. On February 21 1950 as part of the purge the writer was definitively condemned in absentia by the civic chamber of the Paris Court of Justice for collaboration to one year of imprisonment which he had already served in Denmark. The Swedish Consul General in Paris Raoul Nordling intervened on his behalf with Gustav Rasmussen the Danish Foreign Minister and managed to delay his extradition. On April 20 1951 Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour his lawyer since 1948 obtained Céline's amnesty as a ""severely disabled veteran of the Great War"" by presenting his file under the name of Louis-Ferdinand Destouches without any magistrate making the connection. Céline would leave Denmark the following summer after three years spent at his lawyer's home. In 1947 Céline pursued by French justice for his collaborationist involvement was confined in Denmark. It was in May 1948 accompanied by Lucette and Bébert that he arrived at his lawyer Maître Thorvald Mikkelsen's home in Klarskovgaard. The latter owned a large property by the Baltic Sea and invited the exile to stay there. On February 21 1950 as part of the purge the writer was definitively condemned in absentia by the civic chamber of the Paris Court of Justice for collaboration to one year of imprisonment which he had already served in Denmark. The Swedish Consul General in Paris Raoul Nordling intervened on his behalf with Gustav Rasmussen the Danish Foreign Minister and managed to delay his extradition. On unknown
195486537Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat 1954. Fine. Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat 10 Mai 1954 13.50 x 21 cm une page Autograph letter dated and signed by Jean Cocteau 17 lines in black ink to a friend describing his Sevillian sojourn. Fold marks inherent to being placed in an envelope. Jean Cocteau explains his silence: his patron and very close friend Francine Weisweiller had been ill: ""Excuse ce long silence. mais on parle souvent de toi. Francine a été très très malade à Kitzbühel en Autriche et longue à reprendre des forces."" Excuse this long silence but we often speak of you. Francine was very very ill in Kitzbühel in Austria and slow to regain her strength. But to cut short his bad news he prefers to recount the enchantment of Seville: ""Nous revenons de Séville. Il pleuvait sur les calèches et les gitanes - mais dans le vieux Séville pareil à Pompéi les orangers embaument."" We are returning from Seville. It was raining on the carriages and the gypsies - but in old Seville like Pompeii the orange trees are fragrant. unknown
1866866021866. Fine. lundi soir 1866 13.30 x 20.90 cm une page sur un bifeuillet Autograph letter signed by Alexandre Dumas to his mistress Marie Richon. 6 lines on one page of a bifolium of laid paper with the writer's crowned initials. « Chère amoi sic Ton ami arrivé moulu brisé de deux nuits de voitures et de chemins de fer. Il t'attend demain soir mardi. Oh ce sera avec grand bonheur qu'il s'assurera que toutes choses sont dans l'état où il les a laissées a toi » Nothing is known of this affair with Marie Richon addressed to this mistress evidently sensitive to literature ""Fais-moi de bons vers pour mon retour"" he requests of her in another note. Actress society woman or woman of learning the mystery remains complete around this character who inspires in the insatiable Dumas a torrid correspondence. He notably arranged meetings with his mysterious conquest at his residence on Boulevard Haussmann where he had settled from 1865 onwards. A sentence from Dumas in another note tells us that she even met Dumas's daughter who lived with her father and endured the visits of his mistresses ""elle t'adore - ou plutôt nous t'adorons"" he would write to her. This missive can probably be situated during 1866 when the writer was preparing the theatrical adaptation of his novel Gabriel Lambert and mentions in a letter a reading of the play created at the Ambigu-Comique on March 16 1866. The last years of his life did not belie his immeasurable love of women; during this period rich in adventures he also shared his nights with the feminist and gerontophile Olympe Audouard as well as the famous Adah Isaacs Menken whose portraits alongside the writer were divulged by their indiscreet photographer. Handsome letter filled with anticipation from the hand of the great writer and addressed to a mysterious mistress still unknown to biographers. unknown
195278894Paris 1952. Fine. Paris samedi 29 novembre 1952 13.50 x 20.80 cm une page sur un feuillet Handwritten signed letter addressed to a friend: There will also be three poems that I wrote in memory of Renée Vivien Paris Saturday 29 November 1952 135 x 208 cm one page on a leaf Handwritten letter signed by Natalie Clifford Barney addressed to a friend and written in black ink on a stationery from 20 rue Jacob Paris VIe. Central fold from having been sent. Interesting letter mentioning a future reading of Natalie Clifford Barney: A literary hour must be devoted to me this Wednesday at 5pm 41 rue des Petits champs. This session of my poems and thoughts will be accompanied by 4 melodies by Florent Schmidt. The so-called literary hour will also be a tribute to one of Natalie's greatest loves who died several decades earlier: There will also be 3 poems that I wrote in memory of Renée Vivien. The two women experienced an intense and tumultuous relationship in their youth. After the tragic and early death of her lover Natalie Clifford Barney continued to honor her memory notably by becoming a patron of the Prix Renée-Vivien created by the baroness Hélène de Zuylen another of Renée's lovers. It is at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien then Pauline Tarn met Natalie Clifford Barney ""this American woman softer than a scarf whose sparkling face shines with golden hair sea blue eyes never-ending teeth"" Colette Claudine à Paris. Natalie who had just experienced a summer romance with the scandalous Liane de Pougy who introduced her to sapphism paid little attention to this new acquaintance. Renée on the other hand was totally captivated by the young American woman and describes this love at first sight in her autobiographical novel Une femme m'apparut: ""I lived again the hour already well past when I saw her for the first time felt the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met the mortal steel of her look those eyes blue and piercing as a blade. I had a dim premonition that this woman would determine the pattern of my fate and that her face was the predestined face of my Future. Near her I felt the luminous dizziness which comes at the edge of an abyss or the attraction of a very deep water. She radiated the charm of danger which drew me to her inexorably."" ""Winter 1899-1900. Beginnings of the idyll. One evening Vivien is invited by her new friend to Mme Barney's studio Natalie's mother 153 avenue Victor-Hugo on the corner of the rue de Longchamp. Natalie finds the courage to read the verses of her composition. As Vivien tells her to love these verses she tells her that it is better to love the poet. A response worthy of the Amazon."" J.-P. Goujon Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses Two years of unequal happiness will follow punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's sickly jealousy the letters of which oscillate between inflamed declarations and painful admissions of guilt. ""Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire she is the 1900 flower of evil with fevers broken-up fights sad delights."" Jean Chalon Portrait d'une séductrice In 1901 a major break-up occurred which lasted almost two years; Renée despite requests from Natalie and the others she sent to win her back resisted. ""The two friends saw each other again and in August 1905 went on a pilgrimage to Lesbos which was a disappointment for Natalie Barney and was short-lived. . The spring was broken once and for all. The two former friends stopped seeing each other in 1907 and Vivien died without them seeing each other again."" J.-P. Goujon ibid. unknown
194487922Paris 1944. Fine. Paris s.d. ca 1944 13.50 x 18 cm deux pages et demi sur un bifeuillet Autograph letter signed by Prince Georges Ghilka 31 lines in black ink on a double sheet with letterhead from the Majestic Hotel in Paris probably addressed to René-Louis Doyon who devoted in 1944 a biography to Isabelle Eberhardt entitled ""Au pays des sables Isabelle Eberhardt"". Fold mark inherent to the mailing. Prince Georges from the House of Ghika a princely family of Romania of Albanian origin married in Paris in 1910 the most famous Amazon of All Paris Liane de Pougy. René-Louis Doyon sent his work to his friend the prince who thanks him for it: ""Nous avons lu votre livre et c'était délicieux comme une causerie avec vous une causerie qui emporte dans ces pays aimés du soleil et d'Isbelle Eberhardt que vous vous plûtes à citer. Merci encore pour ce grand plaisir que vous nous avez donné."" We read your book and it was delightful like a conversation with you a conversation that carries one away to those beloved lands of sun and of Isabelle Eberhardt whom you took pleasure in quoting. Thank you again for this great pleasure you have given us. unknown
197470633Ispahan Isfahan 1974. Fine. Ispahan Isfahan 22 novembre 1974 14.90 x 10.20 cm une carte postale Autograph postcard signed by Maurice Béjart addressed to André-Philippe Hersin on the verso of a photographic reproduction showing the trembling minarets of Isfahan. The choreographer sent this postcard from Iran where he created in 1971 under the patronage of Empress Farah Pahlavi his ballet Golestan The Rose Garden and in 1974 at the Shiraz festival his ballet Mallarmé III to music by Pierre Boulez. It would also be during this period that Béjart is said to have converted to Islam after meeting Dariouche Safvate eminent Kurdish Sufi musician. unknown
195388024Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat 1953. Fine. Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat 29 Août 1953 21 x 27 cm une page Autograph letter dated and signed by Jean Cocteau 26 lines in blue ink to Olivier Quéant editor of the magazine Plaisir de France sent from villa Santo-Sospir. Fold marks inherent to postal handling. Quéant journalist and notably editor of the magazine Plaisir de France maintained a fine friendly and literary correspondence with the writer. He notably delivered a glowing review of Antigone at its premiere in 1944: ""depuis Racine l'on avait rien écrit d'aussi beau d'aussi grand et d'aussi profondément humain"" since Racine nothing so beautiful so great and so profoundly human had been written L'Illustration. Jean Cocteau at the twilight of his life rebels and complains about his diminished and merely symbolic role in French theater of the 1950s. The second sentence of this letter will be taken up almost word for word in the famous verses of his longest poem Requiem 1962: ""Il est juste qu'on m'envisage / Après m'avoir dévisagé"" It is right that I should be considered / After having been stared at which will also serve as his epitaph. Despite official recognition Cocteau felt until his death ""méconnu inconnu invisible"" misunderstood unknown invisible Jean Cocteau sur le fil du siècle 2003 - a malaise masterfully expressed through these lines. ""Voilà plusieurs années que j'accepte d'être en secret mis à ma place et publiquement remis à ma place. Bref de n'être pas envisagé mais dévisagé. Il est beau de recevoir des lettres ""retournées"" où Anouilh me dit ""Sans vos pièces je n'aurais pas écrit une ligne des miennes"" et Giraudoux ""Rilke avait raison. Nos figures blanches à côté du hâle de tes séjours dans l'antiquité."" Il est beau d'être comme le Pisanelle - enterré sous les roses ."" For several years I have accepted being secretly put in my place and publicly put back in my place. In short not being considered but stared at. It is beautiful to receive ""returned"" letters where Anouilh tells me ""Without your plays I would not have written a line of mine"" and Giraudoux ""Rilke was right. Our pale faces beside the tan of your sojourns in antiquity."" It is beautiful to be like Pisanello - buried under roses . Interesting and touching missive from Cocteau with disordered and furious handwriting twisting and stretching in the manner of a calligram. unknown
196678869Paris 1966. Fine. Paris 17 novembre 1966 20.70 x 13.50 cm une page sur un feuillet enveloppe jointe Handwritten signed letter addressed to Docteur Francis Mars: ""j'ai du mal à vous pardonner le mal que vous vous êtes fait à vous-même ! I find it difficult to forgive you for the harm you have done to yourself! Paris 17 November 1966 20.7 x 13.5 cm one page on a leaf envelope attached Handwritten letter signed by Natalie Clifford Barney addressed to Doctor Francis Mars a few lines written in black in on a leaf of headed paper from 20 rue Jacob Paris VIe envelope attached. Central fold from having been sent. ""Cher ami Francis j'ai du mal à vous pardonner le mal que vous vous êtes fait à vous-même ! Natalie PS: Je ne serai à Nice que vers le 5 déc. My dear friend Francis I find it difficult to forgive you for the harm you have done to yourself! Natalie PS: I will not be in Nice until around 5 Dec. Francis Mars from Nice was a mutual friend of Natalie Clifford Barney and her companion the artist-painter Romaine Brooks. The two women who had been in a relationship for almost fifty years did not live together: Natalie lived in Paris and only joined Romaine in Nice for the winter. unknown
197684900Fleury-Mérogis 1976. Fine. ""Le pire que l'on puisse faire à un juge c'est lui enlever toute autorité devant les autres et crois moi il l'a bien compris"" ""The worst thing you can do to a judge is to remove all his authority in front of others and believe me he understood it well"" Fleury-Mérogis 2 Décembre1976 21 x 29.50 cm une page recto verso Autograph letter dated and signed by Jacques Mesrine dated Thursday December 2 1976 65 lines in blue ink on one recto-verso page addressed to his love at the time Jeanne Schneider thanks to whom the manuscript of Instinct de mort was discreetly smuggled out of prison. Jacques Mesrine then incarcerated at Fleury-Mérogis prison feels unwell and helpless far from his companion and from all human warmth: ""Ce soir je suis très mal foutu. il est 19 heures et je me couche juste après la fin de ta lettre. de rien de grave. juste une grande fatigue à rien faire"" ""Tonight I feel really awful. it's 7 PM and I'm going to bed just after finishing your letter. nothing serious. just very tired from doing nothing"" As a good father Jacques Mesrine rejoices in his daughter's happiness: ""Je suis heureux que sa veste lui plaise. de plus c'est la mode. son Loïc chéri ne va plus la reconnaître."" ""I'm happy that she likes her jacket. plus it's fashionable. her dear Loïc won't recognize her anymore."" and shows himself neither surprised nor more than amused that his daughter wants to embrace the Jewish religion: ""Comme cela la puce veut prendre la religion juive. encore une idée à elle. oui je sais elle a fait croire à ses copains qu'elle était juive. car eux l'étaient.si cela l'amuse je la laisse libre. mais ça démontre aussi un dédoublement de personnalité."" ""So the little one wants to take up the Jewish religion. another one of her ideas. yes I know she made her friends believe she was Jewish. because they were. if it amuses her I leave her free. but it also shows a split personality."" Public enemy No. 1 evokes with a certain pride his latest confrontation with his judge a fierce revenge of the insubordinate against the penitentiary universe that crushes men: ""Aujourd'hui j'ai eu la visite du juge Madre. Tu aurais rigolé car il a eu droit à tout mon vocabulaire. il en perdait la parole j'ai pris mon pied sic A un moment il me dit ""mais c'est quand même moi qui commande. Réponse de ton bibi : ""Ici pédé"" c'est moi ton patron"". Il était vert et les flics se marraient comme des perdus."" ""Today I had a visit from Judge Madre. You would have laughed because he got my full vocabulary. he was speechless I had a ball At one point he tells me 'but I'm still the one in charge. Your boy's response: 'Here faggot I'm your boss.' He was green and the cops were laughing like crazy."" and against all submission to any form of power or violence: ""Le pire que l'on puisse faire à un juge c'est lui enlever toute autorité devant les autres et crois moi il l'a bien compris. Il était venu avec 5 anti-commandos. L'un avait la bombe de gaz à la main. au cas où Loin d'être impressionné. cela me rend con."" ""The worst thing you can do to a judge is to remove all his authority in front of others and believe me he understood it well. He had come with 5 anti-commandos. One had the gas canister in his hand. just in case Far from being impressed. it makes me crazy."" The eternal rebel ends his letter with a beautiful testimony of tenderness for his beloved: ""Là ma puce je vais prendre mon lit en marche.Ton vieux voyou pose ses lèvres sur le tiennes en une douce caresse d'amour. je t'adore petite fille. car nous sommes réellement le ""couple"" et plus encore. Bonne nuit chaton."" ""There my little one I'm going to take to my bed. Your old rogue places his lips on yours in a sweet caress of love. I adore you little girl. because we are truly the 'couple' and even more. Good night kitten."" Rare and very fine letter by Jacques Mesrin unknown
189875918Valvins 1898. Fine. Valvins 23 juin 1898 8.90 x 11.50 cm une carte recto verso - enveloppe jointe Autograph letter-card signed by Stéphane Mallarmé addressed to Alidor Delzant written in black ink on both sides. With the original envelope. Enclosed with this letter is a quatrain in Mallarmés hand: ""Tout en les éternisant / Bracquemond ici fait vivre / Les traits d'Alidor Delzant / A nous ouvert comme un livre."" Alidor Delzant was a lawyer collector and bibliophile. A friend of the Goncourt brothers he devoted a book to them and served as Edmonds secretary and testamentary executor. A delightful card in which the poëte ordinaire refers to the making of his portrait by his friend the painter Whistler: ""j'ai honte d'avoir fui dans ma verdure au moment même où Whistler parlait de mon portrait à faire"". ""On June 1st as he had promised Whistler who in his last letter with an affection verging on tenderness addressed him as mon Mallarmé he went to the painters studio on the rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. You will see someone from the woods somewhere between the wild boar and the nightingale he had warned playfully in announcing his visit. Painter and poet ended the day dining on the rue du Bac where the all-too-ephemeral Trixie was now absent. In the half-light after dinner Whistler near a lamp seemed to resurrect in appearance the extraordinary Poe. Doubtless he then repeated to Mallarmé his intention of painting him. The next day without waiting for the Monet exhibition soon to be held at Georges Petit the Mallarmés went on to Valvins. Jean-Luc Steinmetz Stéphane Mallarmé This was most likely the execution of another portrait of Mallarmé of which no trace remains Whistler having already produced one that served as the frontispiece to Vers et Prose in 1893. He also alludes to Bracquemonds etched portrait of Delzant: ""Je comprends du reste l'eau-forte valant cet exil de Paraÿs . Redites mon affectueuse admiration toujours à Monsieur Bracquemond."" unknown
190479913s. l. Paris 1904. Fine. s. l. Paris s. d. ca 1904 11.50 x 16 cm une page sur un double feuillet Handwritten signed letter addressed to the poet Jean-Marc Bernard: I read the very beautiful eclogue La Mort de Narcisse whose haughty poetry and dramatic breath I admired very much. Paris ca 1904 11.5 x 16 cm one page on a double leafHandwritten signed letter from Renée Vivien addressed to Jean-Marc Bernard written in violet ink on a double leaf of paper decorated at the head with a border of violets. Transverse folds from having been sent. Monsieur J'ai lu le très bel ""églogue"" La Mort de Narcisse dont j'ai fort admiré la hautaine poésie et le large souffle dramatique. Mes très sincères félicitations. Renée Vivien. Monsieur I read the very beautiful eclogue La Mort de Narcisse whose haughty poetry and dramatic breath I admired very much. My very sincere congratulations. Renée Vivien. Jean-Marc Bernard was one of the founders of the poetic satirical and monarchist magazine Les Guêpes which welcomed contributions from Paul-Jean Toulet and Francis Carco among others. Together with the latter two he was part of the École fantaisiste a collective of young poets eager to break with the Parnassians and symbolists and whose ambitions were soon to be swept away by the arrival of the Great War. Jean-Marc Bernard lost his life on the front line destroyed by a shell at the age of thirty-three. unknown
195484027Meudon 1954. Fine. Meudon 1954 20.70 x 26.80 cm une page sur un feuillet Autograph manuscript signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline written in blue and pink ballpoint pens on a white paper sheet numbered 507 in the left corner. One transverse fold. Some pin holes in the upper margin stigmata of the organization of Céline manuscripts in ""bundles"". « j'ai pas de cinéma personnel j'ai pas de bruitage j'ai pas de critiques ""rémunérés"" j'ai que l'hostilité du monde et la catastrophe ! je perds la catastrophe je suis perdu ! . chienlit ! charlatan ! barbeau mou ! Comme ça vous m'intitulez si vous me trouvez pas dans la loge en plein enragement d'éléments ! je veux pas que vous. » The passage in our sheet presents some variations from the published version. Published in 1954 Normance is a direct sequel to Féérie pour une autre fois published two years earlier. Both parts were written during Céline's years of exile and imprisonment in Denmark. Upon his return to France in 1951 Céline undertook a work of ""polishing"" and published independently these two titanic texts originally envisioned as one. ""Céline while working on it thought of this novel as a second Voyage au bout de la nuit capable twenty years later of astonishing the public as much as the 1932 novel."" Henri Godard unknown
197684675Paris 1976. Fine. Paris 11 Octobre 1976 21 x 29.50 cm une page recto verso Autograph letter dated and signed by Jacques Mesrine dated Monday October 11 1976 70 lines in blue ink on one recto-verso page addressed to his love of the time Jeanne Schneider thanks to whom the manuscript of Instinct de mort was discreetly smuggled out of prison. Jacques Mesrine then incarcerated at La Santé showers with gifts the people he loves because he wants their happiness: ""Comme cela j'ai payé une mobylette à mes trois gamines. Toi ce sera une quatre roues sic."" ""Like this I paid for a moped for my three girls. For you it will be four wheels sic."" He shows all his affection for a young girl named Betty whom he seems to cherish more than his own daughter Sabrina: ""Peut-être que je recherche en Betty ce que je ne trouve pas en Sabrina et que Mury m'a refusé ! Tu sais mon ange ; à 15 ans j'aurais tellement aimé avoir un copain de 40 ans à qui je puisse tout dire qui sache m'aider ou m'offrir mon rêve. Peut-être que ce cadeau je me le fais à moi-même."" ""Maybe I'm looking for in Betty what I don't find in Sabrina and what Mury refused me! You know my angel; at 15 I would have loved so much to have a 40-year-old friend to whom I could tell everything who would know how to help me or offer me my dream. Maybe this gift I'm giving it to myself."" for whom he has no more confidence feeling betrayed: ""Mais on ne devient jamais l'ami de quelqu'un qui vous juge. Pas plus que pour Sabrina ! qui elle m'a trompé dans ma confiance donc dans mon amour. Quand on use les sentiments ils ne redeviennent jamais les mêmes."" ""But one never becomes the friend of someone who judges you. No more than with Sabrina! who deceived my trust and therefore my love. When feelings are worn out they never become the same again."" Public enemy No. 1 takes great pride in his relationship with Jeanne Schneider based on honesty: ""C'est peut-être pour cela que je me suis toujours refusé à te mentir - quitte à te faire souffir. Je n'ai aucun passé.mais un seul présent ""Toi"". C'est peut-être cela qui fait que notre amour dure depuis 10 ans "" ""Maybe that's why I've always refused to lie to you - even if it means making you suffer. I have no past.but only one present 'You'. Maybe that's what makes our love last for 10 years "" Jacques Mesrine then turns to material considerations so important for a prisoner: ""J'ai reçu ton linge. Je ne risque pas d'avoir froid cet hiver. Le polo est très bien."" ""I received your clothes. I won't risk being cold this winter. The polo shirt is very good."" before castigating the inhumanity of the prison system and its indifference to suffering: ""Mais nous n'avons rien à attendre des juges et si ma lettre au président a été ferme c'est le genre de lettre qu'il comprendra mieux que le style ventre à terre."" ""But we have nothing to expect from judges and if my letter to the president was firm it's the kind of letter he will understand better than the groveling style."" As an eternally untamed man Jacques Mesrine never ceases to advocate fighting against the prison administration: ""On ne se défend pas en mettant sa tête dans le sable comme l'autruche ! Dès l'instant où l'on prend une arme dans la main. il faut s'attendre à payer ! que Michou le comprenne ce n'est pas le moment d'être ""bébé"" mais celui d'être femme."" ""You don't defend yourself by putting your head in the sand like an ostrich! From the moment you take a weapon in your hand. you must expect to pay! let Michou understand this is not the time to be a 'baby' but to be a woman."" Jacques Mesrine ends this beautiful letter with a moving declaration of love full of optimistic humor: ""Ton vieux tigre pose de doux bécots sur tout ce qui est toi. Bonne nuit chaton et un moral d'acier est de rigueur ok. Je t'adore chanceuse & Ton mystère Jacques !! ""Te adoro A toi seule."" ""Your old tiger puts gentle kisses on everything that is you. Good night kitten and a steel hardcover
197884596Paris 1978. Fine. Paris s. d. 1978 14.50 x 20.50 cm une feuille Important autograph letter signed by Julien Gracq 53 lines in black ink addressed to his close friend and monographer Ariel Denis establishing him as his biographer. Julien Gracq expresses his regret that his friend Ariel Denis was not selected despite his intervention by the Berlin Academy to teach: ""Je vous avais recommandé de mon mieux mais je doute que cela ait été en Allemagne d'une grande efficacité. Je sais d'ailleurs que comme vous le pressentiez les concurents étaient en nombre."" ""I recommended you as best I could but I doubt that was very effective in Germany. I know moreover that as you suspected there were many competitors."" To help his friend the author of Rivage des Syrtes suggested to publisher Seghers who wanted to publish a work about him in his famous ""Poètes d'aujourd'hui"" collection the name of Ariel Denis having had no news from the first biographer considered for this publication: ""Ils me demandent de leur suggérer un nom. J'ai indiqué celui de Lautrat. Et j'ai indiqué le vôtre ne sachant bien sûr aucunement si un travail de ce genre pourrait vous plaire. Il va de soi que si Seghers s'adressait à vous vous devez être absolument libre d'accepter ou de refuser."" ""They ask me to suggest a name. I indicated Lautrat's. And I indicated yours not knowing of course at all whether work of this kind might please you. It goes without saying that if Seghers approached you you must be absolutely free to accept or refuse."" He also hopes to see his friend again soon before the summer holidays: "". si je ne vous revois pas avant juillet je vous souhiate des vacances à la fois paisibles et laborieuses en comptant vous revoir d'ici l'automne."" "".if I don't see you again before July I wish you holidays that are both peaceful and productive counting on seeing you again by autumn."" He concludes his letter with his judgments as an informed cinephile: ""J'ai surtout revu des films de Tati et je me suis beaucoup ennuyé dans une salle déserte au film de Mme Sagan."" ""I mainly rewatched Tati films and I was very bored in a deserted theater by Mme Sagan's film."" At Julien Gracq's instigation Ariel Denis would indeed accept Seghers' proposal to publish a volume in his ""Poètes d'aujourd'hui"" collection about the author of Au château d'Argol thereby becoming one of his best and most remarkable biographers. unknown
193177544Paris 1931. Fine. Paris 6 avril 1931 14.60 x 19.30 cm une page sur une carte lettre Signed autograph note by Reynaldo Hahn addressed to Madame Serge André and written on a white paper letter-card in blue ink. Central fold inherent to the mailing. Dominique André is a poetess novelist and playwright. She notably published under the pseudonym Claude Isambert. ""J'ai trop tardé chère Madame à vous remercier de votre livre et du plaisir qu'il m'a procuré. Plaisir amer et trouble - mais rare. Ce qui est particulièrement remarquable en ces pages c'est leur extrême distinction."" ""I have delayed too long dear Madame in thanking you for your book and the pleasure it has given me. Bitter and troubled pleasure - but rare. What is particularly remarkable in these pages is their extreme distinction."" unknown
190885189Toulon 1908. Fine. Toulon 30 Mars 1908 13.50 x 21.50 cm 8 pages sur deux doubles feuillets une enveloppe Long autograph letter signed by Claude Farrère approximately 160 lines in blue ink 8 pages on two double leaves to his friend Pierre Louÿs thanking him notably for his thoughtfulness. Traces of folds inherent to being placed in an envelope envelope included. Claude Farrère praises his friend's thoughtfulness towards him: ""Thank you for your letter. not only because it is exquisite - six times more than you can believe - but much more because I know very well that you told it to me so as 'not to worry me.' as you say."" and is amazed by the problems raised by these recent articles: ""Said in parentheses I am quite stunned by the one relating to controversial articles. Not only have I not written any."" He is more concerned about the suspicions he arouses regarding his alleged opium consumption: ""I was informed by my own commander that the ministry based on my first book supposed that opium was not foreign to me. The same commander protested arguing that for so many months that I had served under his orders he had absolute certainty that I had not committed the slightest sin! But I doubt that his word is very appreciated in Paris."" and about the hatred that an officer bears him. Despite these problems Claude Farrère wants to reassure his friend: ""I want my dear friend for you to be absolutely at peace about me. I absolutely don't care myself."" while lamenting that the latter is abandoning the south of France this year: ""Tamaris without you how do you expect the celestial mechanism to continue turning And me You would systematically push me to suicide. Don't forget that I'm writing a quite bloody book and that I live in the iniquitous society of people who for a half-yes or a quarter-no disembowel themselves!"" He concludes his letter with new rumors concerning him: ""Of course Madame de X has gratuitously supposed horrible things: I am not the lover of the other lady from the milliner's. Come now! how could a young man such as myself decent and too well brought up cf. Madame P.L.'s opinion etc."" unknown
190079011s. l. Paris 1900. Fine. s. l. Paris s. d. ca 1900 12.50 x 8.40 cm une carte rédigée des deux côtés Autograph letter signed ""Paul"" and addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney written in black ink on both sides. Silver monogram of the poetess in the upper left corner of the recto. ""Je ne vais pas à la campagne après tout mon Tout-Petit. Ils sont partis de si bonne heure que j'ai pu trouver un prétexte pour ne pas les accompagner dans ma fatigue et l'heure trop matinale. Quand veux-tu que je vienne te chercher et où irons-nous Je serai prête à l'heure où tu voudras. J'aime tes jolies fleurs elles sont charmantes - j'ai porté une de tes roses hier au soir. A tout à l'heure mignon Tout-Petit - Paul"" ""I'm not going to the countryside after all my Little One. They left so early that I was able to find an excuse not to accompany them in my fatigue and the too early hour. When do you want me to come get you and where shall we go I'll be ready whenever you want. I love your pretty flowers they are charming - I wore one of your roses last evening. See you soon sweet Little One - Paul"" It was at the end of 1899 and through Violette Shillito that Renée Vivien - then Pauline Tarn - made the acquaintance of Natalie Clifford Barney ""this American more supple than a scarf whose sparkling face shines with golden hair sea-blue eyes implacable teeth"" Colette Claudine à Paris. Natalie who had just experienced a summer idyll with the sulfurous Liane de Pougy who had initiated her into sapphism paid only discreet attention to this new acquaintance. Renée however was completely captivated by the young American and would recount this coup de foudre in her autobiographical novel Une Femme m'apparut: ""J'évoquai l'heure déjà lointaine où je la vis pour la première fois et le frisson qui me parcourut lorsque mes yeux rencontrèrent ses yeux d'acier mortel ses yeux aigus et bleus comme une lame. J'eus l'obscur prescience que cette femme m'intimait l'ordre du destin que son visage était le visage redouté de mon avenir. Je sentis près d'elle les vertiges lumineux qui montent de l'abîme et l'appel de l'eau très profonde. Le charme du péril émanait d'elle et m'attirait inexorablement. Je n'essayai point de la fuir car j'aurais échappé plus aisément à la mort."" ""I recalled the already distant hour when I saw her for the first time and the shiver that ran through me when my eyes met her deadly steel eyes her sharp and blue eyes like a blade. I had the dark prescience that this woman was commanding me to destiny that her face was the dreaded face of my future. I felt near her the luminous vertigo that rises from the abyss and the call of very deep water. The charm of peril emanated from her and attracted me inexorably. I did not try to flee from her for I would have escaped death more easily."" ""Winter 1899-1900. Beginning of the idyll. One evening Vivien is invited by her new friend to the studio of Mrs. Barney Natalie's mother 153 avenue Victor-Hugo at the corner of rue de Longchamp. Natalie ventures to read verses of her composition. When Vivien tells her she loves these verses she replies that it is better to love the poet. An answer quite worthy of the Amazon."" J.-P. Goujon Tes blessures sont plus douces que leurs caresses There followed two years of unequal happiness punctuated by Natalie's recurring infidelities and Renée's morbid jealousy whose letters oscillated between impassioned declarations and painful mea culpas. ""Renée Vivien is the daughter of Sappho and Baudelaire she is the flower of evil 1900 with fevers broken flights sad voluptuousness."" Jean Chalon Portrait d'une séductrice In 1901 came an important break that would last almost two years; Renée despite Natalie's solicitations and the intermediaries she sent to win her back resisted. ""The two friends met again and it was in August 1905 the pilgrimage to Lesbos which constituted a disappointment for Natalie Barney and remained without sequel. . unknown
190783363New York: S. n. 1907. Fine. S. n. New York 4 février 1903 13.50 x 17.50 cm deux feuillets recto-verso Autograph letter signed by the dandy count 54 lines written in black ink on two leaves recto-verso addressed to his friend and bibliographer the critic Henri Lapauze: ""4 février Westminster hôtel New-York Cher monsieur et ami j'ai le plaisir de vous adresser ci-joint une copie manuscrite du salut d'ouverture qui servira de prélude de bienvenue à la première de mes conférences dont la date est fixée à demain. J'espère que vous ferez bon accueil à cet envoi de l'absent et le publierez en bonne place. Les documents ci-joints vous aideront à faire rédiger les lignes explicatives dont je vous demande d'accompagner l'article. Merci à vous à Mr Galdemar et à Sem pour son irrésistible dessin du Gaulois grandement fêté ici. Souvenir bien sincèrement affectueux. Comte Robert de Montesquiou. Je tiens à ajouter que je suis heureux de vous donner la primeur de ce document en témoignage et souvenir de nos bons rapports. J'ajoute que tout semble se disposer pour le succès de mon entreprise. Et vous connaissez assez les lois humaines mondaines et polémiques pour savoir que le tapage de presse accueillant ici les étrangers un peu notables ajoute à la curiosité de l'auditoire. J'espère ne pas trop la décevoir et ceci est le secret de demain. J'ai énuméré dans les pages que je vous adresse les raisons qui m'ont dicté le choix du sujet de ma première conférence. Je n'y reviens pas."" ""February 4th Westminster hotel New-York Dear Sir and friend I have the pleasure of sending you herewith a manuscript copy of the opening greeting which will serve as a welcome prelude to the first of my lectures the date of which is set for tomorrow. I hope you will give a good reception to this missive from the absent one and publish it in a prominent place. The enclosed documents will help you have written the explanatory lines I ask you to accompany the article with. Thank you to Mr Galdemar and to Sem for his irresistible drawing of the Gaulois greatly celebrated here. Most sincerely affectionate regards. Count Robert de Montesquiou. I want to add that I am happy to give you the exclusive rights to this document as testimony and remembrance of our good relations. I add that everything seems to be arranged for the success of my enterprise. And you know well enough the human worldly and polemical laws to know that the press commotion welcoming rather notable foreigners here adds to the audience's curiosity. I hope not to disappoint it too much and this is tomorrow's secret. I have enumerated in the pages I am sending you the reasons that dictated my choice of subject for my first lecture. I will not return to this."" Small pin holes that held the two leaves together. S. n. unknown
197986609Rhodes 1979. Fine. Rhodes Octobre 1979 21 x 10 cm une carte postale Evocative autograph postcard signed by Lawrence Durrell addressed to Jani Brun written in blue felt-tip pen on the verso of a reproduction of a sculpture depicting a seahorse fountain in Rhodes. Minor angular fold marks on the postcard. ""Rhodes ! J'arrive à Paris Dimanche 19 pour deux nuits. Sera tu la sic Disponible Je decend chez l'hotel Royale comme d'habitude. Le tournage est fini ce soir ! Ouf ! Love. Larry."" ""Rhodes! I'm arriving in Paris Sunday the 19th for two nights. Will you be there Available I'm staying at the Hotel Royale as usual. Filming is finished tonight! Phew! Love. Larry."" After many years spent in Greece Egypt and Rhodes the travelling writer Lawrence Durrell was forced to flee Cyprus following popular uprisings that led the island to independence from the British crown. Rich only with a shirt and a typewriter but crowned with the success of his novel Bitter Lemons of Cyprus he arrived in France in 1956 and settled in the Languedoc village of Sommières. In the ""Tartès house"" his large residence surrounded by trees he wrote the second part of his work his monumental Avignon Quintet devoted himself to painting and received his illustrious friends including the couple Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin the violinist Yehudi Menuhin the London publisher Alan G. Thomas and his two daughters Penelope and Sappho. Among the olive trees and under the Mediterranean sun he met in the mid-1960s the young and vivacious ""Jany"" Janine Brun a woman from Montpellier in her thirties of devastating beauty who worked in the Antiquities department at the Sorbonne in Paris. She was nicknamed ""Buttons"" in memory of their first meeting where the young woman wore a dress covered with buttons. Henry Miller also fell under the charm of ""Buttons"" praising her beauty and eternal youth in exceptional unpublished letters. The three companions spent memorable Parisian evenings of which we retain precious autograph traces through their epistolary exchanges. Recommended by Durrell she made numerous trips particularly to England from where she received extensive correspondence from the writer as well as original works of art signed with his artist pseudonym Oscar Epfs. unknown
1839803451839. Fine. s. d. ca 1839 13 x 8 cm une feuille Signed handwritten letter to Louis Desnoyers ca 1839 13 x 8 cm one leaf Handwritten letter signed by Honoré de Balzac addressed to Louis Desnoyers written on a white piece of paper in black ink. My dear Mr Desnoyers extraordinarily today I attend a diplomatic dinner of good-natured folk who want to laugh and drink and as I am in a stupor at work I have not had the courage to refuse this debauchery; I will therefore not be at home. Come early Sunday morning. / Yours / de Balzac. Louis Desnoyers plays an important role in the foundation of the Société des gens de lettres which aims to protect literary and artistic property and to create a solidarity fund. Balzac supported the creation of this Society of which Desnoyers was vice-president. Amusing letter testimony of Balzac's love of good food. unknown
189676347Paris 1896. Fine. Paris 2 avril 1896 11.40 x 8.80 cm une carte et une enveloppe Signed autograph card from Stéphane Mallarmé addressed to Alidor Delzant written on the recto in black ink. Envelope included. Alidor Delzant was a lawyer collector and bibliophile. Friend of the Goncourts he devoted a work to them and was Edmond's secretary and testamentary legatee. ""Merci de songer à moi qui ne vous oublie. J'attends à chaque minute un télégramme qui m'appelle à Londres où je passerai vraisemblablement toute la semaine de Pâques."" ""Thank you for thinking of me who does not forget you. I am expecting at any moment a telegram calling me to London where I will most likely spend the entire Easter week."" unknown
