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Delaunay-Terk, Sonia, French artist (1885-1979).
Autograph letter signed. Paris, 4. X. 1927.
4to. ¾ p. To Madame Kramstyk, the wife of the Polish realist painter Roman Kramstyk (also spelt Kramsztyk, 1885-1942), thanking her for sending an article: "J'ai trouvé en rentrant de voyage votre lettre et l'article et vous remercie de me l'avoir envoyé. J'espére avoir le plaisir de vous voir un jour [...]". - Delaunay, who together with her husband Robert developed a vibrant, colourful branch of cubism known as orphism, was known for an immense range of design, from painting to fabric design, set design, costumes, furniture and books. - On stationery with artistically printed letterhead. Left margin with punched holes (no loss to text).
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Distelbarth, Carl Heinrich, architect and translator (fl. 1830s).
7 autograph letters signed. Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg and Paris, 1827-1835.
4to and 8vo. Together 17 pp. on 7 bifolia. Each with autograph address on verso. Friendly correspondence with the architect Antoine Jean-Baptiste Rondelet (1785-1863), the son of the architect Jean-Baptiste Rondelet (1743-1829), whose "Traité théorique et pratique de l'art de bâtir" Distelbarth translated into German. - About his travels through the Champagne and the half-timbered houses he saw there, which reminded him of the well-insulating building methods used in Germany: "J'ai remarqué que la charpente et en général les maisons sont mieux faites à partir de Châlons s. Marn. jusqu'à Strasbourg, que dans la Bourgogne et dans les environs de Paris, où j'étais, la charpente s'approche dans la Champagne à la manière Allemande et garantit plus contre le froid [...]" (Ludwigsburg, 9 Feb. 1829). - About his ambition to write a book on stone cutting, preferably in Paris, as well as discussing two chain bridges in St. Petersburg: "Je ne puis encore rien vous dire de mon entreprise relativement à mon traité de la coupe des pierres [...] je ne recule point devant mon projet que je veux absolument continuer [...] Mais si le libraire me traite honnêtement, j'aurai l'envie d'écrire mon ouvrage à Paris, je veux dire que mon ouvrage sera fait plus parfait à Paris qu'ailleurs [...] Si je n'abuse pas trop de votre temps, je passe des affaires de mon interêt au vôtre et je vous communique quelques expériences de 2 ponts en chaines exécutés à Petersbourg en 1824 [...]" (Ludwigsburg, 27 April 1829). - Two letters discussing his plan to translate Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine's "Résidences des souverains" (1833), with the addition of the facade of the Stuttgart Royal Palace: "Mr. Fontaine m'a envoyé de plus 1 exemplaire de son ouvrage sur les palais de souverains, que vous m'avez mentionnés [...] Comme le roi d'ici prend un intérêt tout particulier à cet ouvrage et désire que les façades y seraint jointes, je me décidai de le traduire et s'il veut porter les frais de gravoure, je publierai aussi les façades [...]" (Stuttgart, 19 Feb. 1835). - A letter adressed to "Romain Rondelet", but likely to Antoine Jean-Baptiste Rondelet as well, looking forward to the illustrations of churches and bridges in a later edition of the "Traité", and mentioning an 18th century work on bridges: "Je suis chargé en même temps des autres Mrs. les souscripteurs de la 5me édition, de vous demander, si vous ne nous donnez pas bientôt le 4me volume annoncé dans le dernier prospectus comme paraissant bientôt, on est curieux de voir les plans d'églises et de ponts [...] On trouve des descriptions historiques de ponts dans un livre allemand, publié en 1774 à Leipsic, intitulé: Leupold's Schauplatz der Brücken [...] Voici ce qu'il dit du pont de Schaffhouse [...]" (Ludwigsburg, 3 May 1830). - In the remaining two letters Distelbarth mentions his anticipation to obtain a copy of a soon-to-be published work and recommends a young colleague. - With annotations by the recipient. Three letters glued together near the lower left corner.
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Fini, Leonor, surrealist painter and designer (1907-1996).
Autograph letter signed. [Postmark: Nonza, Corse, 28 Aug. 1972].
4to. 2 ½ pp. With autograph envelope. To the writer Xavière Gauthier (b. 1942), concerning the catalogue of her exhibition in Tokyo in October and other texts on her art. Fini wishes to use some extracts from a text by Gauthier and hopes that they will meet before she leaves for Tokyo on 15 September. - Xavière Gauthier wrote Fini's biography in 1973.
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Jacob, Max, French poet, painter, writer, and critic (1876-1944).
Autograph letter signed. No place, 19. II. 1927.
4to. 2 pp. To a gifted young writer about his vivid imagination: "J'ai été evenement interessé par vos poémes. Je dit proprement 'interessé'. Vous avez une imagination minutieuse, qui descend fort avant dans la reconstitution [...]". - Traces of folds.
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Jacob, Max, French poet, painter, writer, and critic (1876-1944).
Portrait photograph signed. No place, 7. IX. 1936.
293 x 235 mm. Three-quarter profile, inscribed to the French priest and painter Maurice Morel (1908-91): "A Monsieur l'abbé Maurice Morel / son ami fidèle et reconnaissant / Max Jacob / 7. Sept. 36". - Morel found a mentor in Max Jacob, a Jewish convert to Catholicis who was a close friend of Pablo Picasso and other artistic-literary notables of the period. - With stamp of the photo studio "Photo Photomaton" on verso page.
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Kisling, Moïse, French painter (1891-1953).
Autograph letter signed. No place, "Vendredi" [1953].
Oblong 8vo. 1 page. Looking forward to seeing a friend in Marseille, where Kisling will be travelling for work in a few days, planning to give him a call: "Comme je suis content de vous retrouver dans Marseille que j'aime! Dans quelques jours j'irai travailler sur le vieux port et je ne manquerai pas de vous donner un coup de fil pour aller vous serrer les deux mains [...]". - Upper margin a little frayed.
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Léger, Fernand, French painter (1881-1955).
Autograph manuscript signed twice "F. Leger" and "Fernand Léger". N. p., 28. III. 1951.
8vo. 3 pp. on bifolium. Unpublished theoretical reflections "On Liberty", in which Léger ponders the role of liberty as a driving factor in the succession of artistic styles. Léger identifies "liberty" and "truth" as the main forces of change, drawing a continuous line from pictorial realism to then-contemporary abstraction via impressionism, cubism, and surrealism. In abstraction, the "abandonment of objects", Léger recognizes the danger of "anarchistic deviation" due to "oversimplicity". He therefore announces "the return of the sujet" as a "very serious" reaction to this tendency. For Léger this development is far from being reactionary, and he even points to religious "paintings of great quality" from "primitive epochs" (meaning European pre-Renaissance art) as positive examples. "Liberty can be at play within an accepted modern constraint", for the ultimate guarantor of its realization, according to Léger, is "creative genius". In proclaiming the return of figurative painting, Léger's schematic text is well situated within avant-garde discourses, while his categories of "liberty", "truth", and "creative genius" have since come under more critical scrutiny. - The text in full: "C'est un mot qui domine le monde, qui s'impose a toutes les générations successives. De tous temps on s'est fait tuer pour elle. Elle est le moteur des révolutions. En art c'est c'est moins grave - c'est moins dramatique. Mais cette liberté est elle aussi facteur constructif dans totes les différentes époque [!] pictural qui ont fleuri le monde. Elle marche de front avec la vérité. La bataille est la même. Etre libre d'être vrai, quelle quantité peut-on imposer? Il y a dans chaque époque creative une part de ces deux forces. L'epoque 1830 - L'epoque Impressioniste. L'epoque Cubiste. L'epoque Surrealiste. L'epoque Abstracte. comportent toutes un chiffre constructif, Liberté verité[.] a remarquer toutefois que ces differentes évolutions qui se succèdent comportent, plus on s’avance, à un besoin d’évasion de la pure realité - La fuite du realisme s’accentue en abandonnant les sujets (impressionnisme), en utilisant les objets (Cubisme), en abandonnant cet objet (art abstrait) - actuellement art abstrait 'art pour l'art' est étal - cet [!] tendance actuelle comporte en elle-même un danger, car elle est entierement imaginative sans aucune contrainte sujet ou objet. Par ce fait et par certaine deviation anarchique et trop facile, une réaction assez serieuse se fait jour, 'retour au sujet'. La liberté dont il est question est-elle en cause dans cette evolution que l'on pourrait croire réactonnaire? Pas du tout. Les grands époques primitives ont pu réaliser des tableaux de grande qualité en delineant un sujet aussi dramatique que la vie du christ - par exemple. La liberté peut jouer dans une contrainte moderne acceptee. Simplement avoir le genie creatif nécessaire pour realiser en qualité plastique le sujet choisi [...]". - Some browning. Well preserved.
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Magritte, René, Belgian surrealist artist (1898-1967).
Autograph letter signed with 2 original sketches. Nice, 24. VI. 1961.
8vo. 2 pp. on bifolium. The sketches: 42 x 58 mm and 35 x 51 mm in ballpoint. Charming letter in French, probably to his Athens-based art dealer Alexander Iolas, who had bought the painting "The Dress of Galatea" that is mentioned in the letter. After announcing his safe arrival in Nice together with his wife Georgette Berger and their dog Loulou and thanking the recipient for his hospitality, Magritte suggests the now-official title of the nude painting. He jokingly reasons that "archeologists will have something to 'reflect' upon and you will have, I believe, the same pleasure as I do to know how Galatea could dress". In the second part of the letter, Magritte makes two architectural suggestions with sketches for the building project of a mutual friend, Castellanos. The first idea is to have "somewhere in the facade a crooked window (the rest being perfectly straight)". Secondly, Magritte suggests to add an unreachable door to the facade while concealing the actual entrance on the side. - Although surrealist architecture abounds in Magritte's paintings, there is no record of any actual building projects. Facetiously though the letter is written, Magritte would certainly have enjoyed seeing his ideas realized. - The text in full: "Nous sommes bien 'rentrés' à Nice, Georgette, Loulou et moi, en gardant le délicieux plaisir de votre accueil et du milieu splendide où vous vivez. C'est mieux qu'un rêve, heureusement... Mais je vous écris pour vous remercier mais aussi pour vous demander d'ajouter un mot au titre 'Galatée': en renvoyant le tableau nonvie ainsi par nous, j'ai pensé que le titre pourrait être: 'La Robe de Galatée' - De cette manière, d'éventuels archéologues auront de quoi 'réflechir' et vous avez, je crois, le même plaisir que moi à savoir comment Galatée pouvait s'habiller. En repensant aux possibilités architecturales que l'architecte de Castellanos ne se fait pas faute de prodiguer avec un rare bonheur, j'aimerais - si cela 'va' - que vous lui en suggeriez une, (que si je faisais bâtir, je vourdrais voir réaliser). Il s'agit de quelque chose de très simple (et qui étonnerait les entrepreneurs qui commencent pourtant à en avoir l'habitude): quelque part dans la façade, une fenêtre travers (tout le reste etant bien d'aplomb) - Dans cette ordre d'idée, il y a aussi dans une façade une porte ('en soi', non utilisable non 'pragmatique') - la porte pratique étant sur le côté - Je vous rappelle mon adresse à Bruxelles: 97 rue des mimosas [...]". - Traces of folds and minor tears.
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Matisse, Henri, French artist (1869-1954).
Autograph letter signed "Henri". [Collioure, 1911].
12mo. 4 pp. on a bifolium. Complex and emotional letter to his wife Amélie Noellie Parayre, primarily describing a mental health crisis of Matisse's student and alleged lover Olga Markowa Meerson. In the first part of the letter, Matisse informs his wife that he had written to his patrons Gertrude and Leo Stein. He emphasizes that he wrote about painting at length but did not mention a potential visit of the siblings in Collioure, the southern French fishing village where Matisse spent the summer of 1911. Apparently, Amélie dreaded their visit and Matisse planned to suggest to the Steins the neighbouring village Argèles as an alternative domicile, but concludes: "Even if they find accommodation here - provided that they bring their housemaid - we cannot give the impression of pushing them away. You will probably see less sympathetic people here because Collioure is said to be invaded by painters" (transl.). - The second part of the letter forms an intimate account of Meerson's mental crisis, Matisse's conflict with his wife over the student, and his as well as his daughter Marguerite's growing desperation that is worth quoting in full: "I do not have anything really new to report except perhaps that it rained all day and that Olga already wanted to leave 3 times since your departure. The nerves recover less and less well, which is very difficult for us. For three days she has been sleeping here, having had hallucinations at her place. I strongly wish her to return to Paris and I hardly see the possibility of taking her to Italy because she could never work to make ends meet and take care of herself. Surely she needs to return to her family, she is really incapable of any effort. I am highly annoyed and enervated - she makes scenes for no reason. Her irritation, which was with Purrmann, has shifted to me, and I assure you that it is not at all amusing and there is nothing to say because she will not acknowledge it. Today she suffered a very strong crisis that destroyed Margot and me. I have been awake since one in the morning and am writing you after writing to Stein. It is now four o'clock. Finally after wanting to leave yesterday at 11 o'clock in the evening, very agitated, as if mad, she decided to stay, but will not see us again. She will make arrangements to stay with Madame Delfau [wife of the painter Louis Delfau] and remain there so as not to disturb us anymore. She has a day or two. You can wait to see her come back after these days but I do not recommend it at all because it will be unnecessary stress for you. We certainly made a mistake in not letting her leave a month ago. She has to return to her family, she admits it herself in her manic phases. To hold her back would be negligent. Besides, there are other things to do, I have not worked in four days. Since Huyot [the painter Albert Huyot] left we have been saddled with her, and it is enervating. The night before this I slept very poorly. This one is sleepless now - you need to choose her or me without even considering Marguerite, who is strongly affected [...]. The sea is certainly harmful to her, and she needs the care that her family has to provide her". - Matisse met the Russian Olga Meerson, a talented painter, at the "Académie Matisse" that he had founded in 1908 with the financial support of the Steins and other friends. The German artist Hans Purrmann, mentioned in the letter, was among the organizers of the short-lived academy. When Matisse stopped teaching in 1911 he continued to meet Meerson, who served him as a model, and they allegedly had an affair. The fact that Meerson in 1911 executed one of the few portraits of Matisse, always a reticent sitter, speaks of their intimacy. While it is often repeated that Matisse broke off contact because of his wife's jealousy, the letter tells a more complex story. We do not know details of the relationship of the two women but Matisse's dramatic demand to choose between him and her clearly points to a very emotional situation. Apparently, Amélie had planned a trip to Italy with Henri and Olga, which he opposed citing Olga's mental health. The relationship of the Matisses with Olga Markowa Meerson effectively ended only weeks after the letter was written. Olga moved back to Munich, where she married the German music critic and composer Heinz Pringsheim (Thomas Mann's brother-in-law) in 1912. In 1929 Olga Markowa Meerson took her own life in Berlin. In spite of her obvious talent, Meerson is today largely forgotten as an artist, which will hopefully change in the future. - Slightly creased.
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Mondrian, Piet, Dutch painter (1872-1944).
Autograph letter signed "Piet Mondrian". N. p., 24. VII. 1932.
4to. 2 pp. Charming letter in French to his friend, the Swiss architect Alfred Roth (1903-98), thanking him for sympathetic feedback to Mondrian's unpublished text "L'Art nouveau - La Vie nouvelle" and asking for the return of the manuscript. Roth and other friends of Mondrian's like the German-Swiss art historian Carola Giedion-Welcker and the Swedish sociologist Sven Bäcklund had offered to finance the publication, but Mondrian insists that he wants to wait until he can afford it himself through the sale of paintings: "I was delighted by your letter and your appreciation, and that of the other friends gives me tremendous joy. You have very well noticed the essential: my imperturbable faith in the future, in human evolution. All the beauty of life is in there - isn't it? - I further appreciate the efforts and intentions of the friends to find the necessary means for publication but I do not wish to incommode (especially in these times) my friends or even acquaintances for a favour [chose utile]. I prefer to wait until I sell enough to cover the costs myself. Tell this to Giedion and Backlund. The publication is not so urgent. I improve my little work from time to time. For that reason, I would like to have my manuscripts back because I found some things in there that are not well or precisely expressed. But if you know and tell it to the friends you can keep them a bit longer. If Seuphor's 'Éditions nouvelles' continue to exist, they produce affordable and good editions. After all, I believe that an independent publication will be better than through Geneva. I was astonished to hear that this Spanish architect, whom I personally do not know, did not send the information. I will discuss that with my friend, the Spaniard. In my painting I make good progress. The material outlook is still poor. For everyone!" - Mondrian had worked on the book since 1929 and started to look for a publisher in 1932. It is not known whether Mondrian ever negotiated with the Belgian artist and publisher Michel Seuphor (1901-99), who was stylistically influenced by Mondrian and wrote an early biography of the master in 1956. In 1938 Mondrian finally abandoned the project, though the text was published posthumously. In a short postscript to the letter, Mondrian announces a new introduction to the book, which is also included in Louis Veen's 2017 edition of Mondrian's writings. - Traces of folds. Slightly creased with some minor tears. Piet Mondrian and Louis Veen (eds.), The complete Writings. Essays and Notes in Original Versions (2017).
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Monet, Claude, French painter (1840-1926).
3 autograph letters signed. Giverny and London, 1899-1901.
8vo. Altogether 5 ½ pp. on bifolia. To a Mr. Durolles, probably an official at the Ministry of Defence, concerning the conscriptions of Monet's son Michel (1878-1966) and his stepson Jean-Pierre Hoschedé (1877-1961). With regard to Michel, Monet first informs his contact that he was transferred to the "Commis et ouvriers militaires" and that he can now do what is necessary to transfer Michel to Vernon, close to Giverny: "J'apprends ici que mon fils Michel a obtenu son changement de 7ptme de Ligue à la 3me section de commis et ouvriers militaires. Je me hate de vous en informer, comme vous m'y avez autorisé afin que vous pourriez de suite faire le necessaire pour le faire placer à Vernon, ce qui sera le comble de nos vœux, aussi je en ai pas besoin de vous dire combien nous vous en serons reconnaissante [...]" (Jan. 1901, recipient's note). - In the second letter from 26 February 1901, Claude Monet explains that Michel has received information that he will be retransferred to Rouen. Monet asks the recipient to make Michel's posting in Vernon permanent before the transfer to Rouen becomes official: "Je viens encore faire appel à votre aimable obligeance. Mon fils Michel qui grâce à vous a été envoyé à Vernon, et ou il se trouve très bien, a appris officieusement par un camarade qui est employé à la direction de Rouen, qu'il était question de le faire revenir à Rouen, parce que l'on vient d'envoyer un autre soldat à Vernon et par ce fait il y a un homme de plus à l'effectif de cette ville. Cela n'est pas officiel mais pourrait le devenir, mon fils en a la crainte et me demande à vous écrire afin d'user de votre influence pour le faire classer définitivement à Vernon. Si ce n'est abuser de votre obligeance je vous serais bien vivement reconnaissant d'intervenir auprès de votre collègue de Rouen. Vous demandant de bien vouloir le faire le plustot [!] possible avant que la chose ne devienne officiel [!]. Tous mes remerciments [...]". Both letters were sent from London, where Claude Monet stayed in 1901. - Regarding his stepson Jean-Pierre Hoschedé, Monet informs Durolles that the former minister Léon Bourgeois had successfully intervened on Jean-Pierre's behalf so that he would be allowed to continue his studies in Paris before being drafted: "J'apprends à l'instant par Monsieur Léon Bourgeois l'ancien Ministre qui porte beaucoup d'intérêt à mon beaufils que sur sa demande et dans le but de lui procurer plus de temps à ses études, il vient d'obtenir qu'il soit détaché au Ministère de la guerre. Je m'empresse de vous en informer au cas ou vous ne le sauriez deja et je tiens à vous remercier encore de votre obligeante sollicitude à son egard [...]" (13 April 1899). - Michel Monet and Jean-Pierre Hoschedé grew up like siblings since the Hoschedé family had moved to live with the Monets in Vétheuil in 1878. Alice Hoschedé took care of Monet's first wife Camille, who suffered from terminal cancer, and the eight children. Camille died in 1879, and Ernest Hoschedé soon left the household, only visiting sporadically and later unsuccessfully asking his wife to return to him. In 1883 the family moved to Giverny and in 1892, one year after Ernest Hoschedé's death, Claude Monet and Alice married. - Letter from 13 April 1899 on mourning stationery with letterhead; the other two letters on stationery with embossed letterhead of the Savoy Hotel, London. Well preserved.
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Choiseul-Stainville, Etienne François duc de, französischer Staatsmann (1719-1785).
Schreiben mit eigenh. U. Versailles, 16. III. 1770.
1 S. Kl.-4to. Übermittelt einen königlichen Befehl: "L'Intention du Roy est, Monsieur, qu'a la reception de cette Lettre vous partiez pour vous rendre sans perdre de tems a votre employ, et je vous prie de me donner avis de votre depart et de votre arrivée pour que je puisse informer Sa Majesté de votre exactitude a vous conformer a ses ordres [...]". - Spuren alter Faltung.
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Fortoul, Hippolyte Nicolas Honoré, historian and politician (1811-1856).
Autograph letter signed. Paris, 17. I. 1851.
8vo. ½ p. In French, about his plans to meet Mr. Bailly on the following day to discuss new plans. - After the February Revolution of 1848, Fortoul ran for the Constituent Assembly election but was defeated. He was elected as deputy for Basses-Alpes in the 1849 French legislative election and steadily moved towards a Bonapartist position. In October 1851 he was appointed Minister of the Navy, and on 3 December 1851 he became Minister of Education and Religious Affairs. - On stationery with printed letterhead "Cabinet du Ministre de l'Instruction Publique et des Cultes". Traces of folds.
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Fyot de La Marche, Claude-Philippe, magistrate (1694-1768).
Autograph correspondence. Dijon & Paris, 1738-1749.
Various sizes (mostly 4to). 22 letters. Together 48 pp. Twenty-two letters to his friend Charles Loppin de Gemeaux (1714-1805) on various subjects, thanking him for presents and favours and reporting on mutual acquaintances: "Il m'a paru Monsieur, que vous souhaités avec raison de renouveller connaissance avec Mr. et Mad. Brun. Ils sont prets a me quitter et tous mes efforts ne pourront les retenir que jusqu'à Lundy prochain [...]" (2 Nov. 1742). - Some browning but altogether in a very good condition.
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[Goethekreis]. - Maria Pawlowna, Großherzogin von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1786-1859).
Schriftstück mit eigenh. Zeilen. O. O. u. D.
2 SS. Kl.-Folio (ca. 350:215 mm). Anfrage eines Hofbeamten anlässlich des Besuchs der Zarenfamilie am großherzoglichen Hof in Weimar betreffend die für den Besuch angemessene Beleuchtung, das Geschirr der großherzoglichen Töchter sowie zusätzliches Personal. Mit eigenh. Antwortnotizen der Großherzogin.
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[Guizot, François, Minister für öffentlichen Unterricht (1787-1874)].
Briefentwurf von Sekretärshand. Paris, 20. VI. 1833.
1 S. Folio (ca. 205:315 mm). Im Namen des Ministers mit Bedauern, die ihm durch den Universitätsbibliothekar Johann Ridler übermittelten Archivschriftstücke aus Österreich aus Zeitmangel nicht lesen zu können: "Monsieur le Ministre de l'Instruction publique regrette vivement de ne pouvoir lire en ce moment à cause de ses nombreuses occupations la feuille des archives de l'Autriche qui lui a été adressée par M. Ridler. Plustard, il espère avoir plus de loisir et en profiter avec empressement […]". - Auf Briefpapier mit gedr. Briefkopf des Ministeriums.
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Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Johann Georg von, Reichshofratspräsident und Diplomat (1577-1623).
Brief mit eigenh. U. Hechingen, 6. IV. 1619.
2 SS. auf Doppelblatt. Folio (ca. 210:300 mm). Mit Adresse verso. An Franz II. von Lothringen, den Grafen von Vaudémont, mit Dank für dessen Zusage, eine Gesandtschaft zur Hochzeit seiner Tochter Franziska Katharina mit Graf Jakob Hannibal II. von Hohenems zu schicken, welche er aber aufgrund des kürzlichen Todes von Kaiser Matthias verschieben will: "Genediger Herr [...], auff mein newliches undertheniges Bitten und Einladungs Schreiben, antwortlich sich dahin zu erkleren beliebet, daß die selbige mir wie auch meinem künftigen Dochtermann und dessen Ehelich versprochenen gesponß Meiner Dochter zu gnaden E. g. Persohn durch Jemandts Abordnung Ihrem auff 14 diß alhir angestelten Hochzeitlichem Ehrenfest beywohnen lassen wöllen, dessen thue gegen dero selben ich mich underthenig und zum Höchsten bedanckhen [...] Demnach aber seuthero der Allmechtige, weylandt die Röm. Kay. Majt. [...] den 20sten Jüngstverwichenen Monats auß dißem zergenglichen Leben zu sich In die Ewige Rueh erforderet, dannenhero sich [...] mir alß Ihrer abgeleibten Kay. Majt. allerunderthanigistem würdehlichem Diener nit wol anstendig sein oder gebüren will, dergleichen Frewdenfest [...] bey solchem Zustandt halten zu lassen. Alßo hab E. F. G. ich dessen hiemit underthenig zu verstendigen nit umbgehen sollen [...] und dieselben in Eventum nochmahls underthenig bittendt [...] obangezohenes Hochzeit Fest hernachst vorgehabter massen solenniter angestellt, und ich mich mit vorangeregtem meinem khünfftigen Dochtermann, eines andern Tages und Zeit, vergleichen solte, dessen E. F. G. zeitlich genug vorher zu avisieren, daß dieselben die genedig bewilligte Abordnung zu werckh zu richten wolten geruhen [...]". - Papierbedingt etwas gebräunt und mit kleinen Randläsuren. Die Adressseite mit französischsprachigem Rubrum.
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Maximilian III. Joseph, Kurfürst von Bayern (1727-1777)
Eigenh. Urkunde mit U. München, 11. VIII. 1746.
1 S. Qu.-Folio. Mit der Genehmigung einer Zulage für Oberstleutnant Franz von Goeswin: "Entbieten [...] unsern Gruß [...] und geben Ihnen hiemit zu vernehmen [...] dass [...] ersagtem obrist lieutenant Goeswin [...] die völlige Gage, seiner jetzigen Charactere gemäß [...] als eine sonderbahre unser vorig allgemeinen Verordnung kein Abbruch verursachende Gnaden Zulag abgefolgt werden soll [...]".
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[Pape-Carpantier, Marie, feminist (1815-1878)].
Portrait photograph and printed biography. No place or date.
Folio. 4 pp. (Photograph:) 185 x 120 mm. Printed biography of Marie Pape-Carpantier, who played a major role for nearly three decades in developing a distinctive pedagogy for French public nursery schools, initially known as "salles d'asile" and later as "écoles maternelles". Includes a printed autograph by Pape-Carpantier.
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Pietsch, Balthasar, Präfekt der Niedergrafschaft Katzenelnbogen (1747-1826).
Schriftstück mit eigenh. U. Langenschwalbach, 6. VII. 1812.
1 S. Folio (ca. 220:360 mm). Lebensbescheinigung für Balthasar Pietsch, Präfekt des 1808 von Napoleon eingerichteten Konsistoriums Mainz, der am selben Tag vor dem Notar Guillaume Frederic Gleim erschienen ist: "Je soussigné Guillaume Frederic Gleim, Conseiller de S. A. Sérénissime le Landgrave de Kothembourg et Notaire public résidant à Langenschwalbach, chef-lieu de Bas-Comté de Cazenellenbogen certifie que Monsieur Balthazar Pietsch, Président du Consistoire général de Mayence, Membre de la Légion d'Honneur et momentanement administrateur du dit Comté pour Sa Majesté L'Impereur des Français, Roi d'Italie né le 11 Juin 1747 à Darmstadt, grand Duché de Hesse, suivant son acte de naissance, est vivant pour s'être présenté aujourd'hui devant moi [...]". - Mit Gegenzeichnung durch den Diplomaten Théodore Charles de Hédouville (Frankfurt, 16. IX. 1812) sowie der Quittung einer Zahlung des Buchhändlers Le Fevre an Pietsch (Langenschwalbach, 17. IX. 1812). - Mit rotem Lacksiegel, dem Stempel des Großherzogtums Frankfurt und einer Stempelmarke der Grafschaft Katzenelnbogen. Kleine Randläsuren.
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Schoenhals, Karl Jakob Rt. von, General (1788-1857).
Schriftstück mit eigenh. U. Monza, 11. VIII. 1849.
Ca. ¾ S. auf Doppelblatt. Folio. An Oberstleutnant Gustav Ritter Müller von Nordegg (1818-78) mit Dank für die positive Einschätzung von Schoenhals' Regiment und mit Übersendung eines Dekrets, in dem er Müller berechtigt, Disziplinarstrafen vorzunehmen: "Da allerdings die Erhaltung der Disciplin insbesondere im Kriege eine der Grundfesten einer Armee ist, so nehme ich keinen Anstand Hochderselben das Jus gladii et aggratiandi über die [...] Grenadiers Division meines Regiments zu ertheilen [...]". - Mit Aktenvermerk; Sammlervermerk in Bleistift verso, teilweise etwas staubrandig, leicht tinten- und staubfleckig.
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Schöning, Kurd Wolfgang von, preußischer General (1789-1859).
Eigenh. Brief mit U. O. O., 23. III. 1834.
1 S. Folio. An den befreundeten Historiker Leopold Frh. von Ledebur (1799-1877) mit Bitte um Erklärung eines Begriffs in einer Urkunde zur Genealogie des Geschlechts von Schöning, die sich auch im Verzeichnis einer Abhandlung Ledeburs über die Winzenburg finde, und der Anmerkung, Ledebur möge ihm die mitgesendete Urkunde nicht streitig machen: "In beiden Urkunden sind Vette Henning und Vetthe Heyne, ohnfehlbar ein und dieselbe Person; es kommt mir nur darauf an zu wissen: was das Vetthe recht bedeuten soll? Baumer war der Meinung es müsse die Eigenschaft der Wohlbeleibtheit bezeichnen. Es würde vielleicht nicht unpassend sein, diesen Gegenstand in einem Ihrer Archivhefte in Frage zu stellen [...]". - Die Empfängernotiz Ledeburs informiert über Erhalt und Rücksendung der Urkunde. Mit Sammlervermerk in Blei verso.
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Viale-Prelà, Michele, Kardinal und Erzbischof (1798-1860).
Brief mit eigenh. U. O. O., 16. III. (o. J.).
1 S. auf Doppelblatt. 8vo. An einen Freund mit Dank für gute Neuigkeiten über Napoleon, die er als Garant für Frieden und Glück für Frankreich und ganz Europa interpretiert: "Merci, Merci, encore une fois Merci pour les bonnes nouvelles, que Vous avez bien voulu me faire parvenir. Remerciez un Dieu, qui protège d'une manière si visible S. M. l'Empereur Napoleon. Cet heureux évenement nous apporte une nouvelle garantie de paix et de bonheur pour la France et pour l'Europe [...]". - Leicht braunfleckig.
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Aragon, Louis, French poet (1897-1982).
Autograph manuscript signed ("Aragon"). [Moscow, 1932].
Folio. 4 ¾ pp. on 8 ff. In red ink. Article in French entitled "Le 7 Novembre est bien la fête des Sans-Dieu" ("November 7 is effectively the Feast of the Godless") for the atheist magazine "La Lutte antireligieuse et sociale", organ of Proletarian Free Thought (better known as "Organisation des travailleurs sans dieu"). Louis Aragon spent a year in Moscow from early 1932 after breaking with the Surrealist movement, particularly André Breton. During this time he witnessed the enormous parade on Red Square for Revolution Day on October 15. In the article Aragon describes the event with a focus on anti-religious messages, contrasting the "byzantine" Saint Basil's Cathedral with modern architecture, engineering, and technological progress such as the planned Moscow Canal, achieved by communism. The military parade was followed by a parade of workers with their tools, products and anti-religious posters, for "this crowd has no God anymore, this immense crowd has no God anymore". And yet there are new idols, standing out against the old ones: "What an extraordinary figure made above this crowd, where you find the best shock workers of socialist construction, the best pioneers from the kolkhozes and sovkhozes, the baroque cathedral, like a phantom of the past!" In closing, Aragon enthusiastically describes the accompanying air show, likening the aircrafts to symbols of socialist progress, in comparison with the symbols of tsarism and orthodoxy: "And in passing with their straight wings they seem to deride the contorted golden eagles of the Tsars, the crosses with two crossbeams of the old church, where today only the voices of Marx and Lenin are heard, of the old church that is chained to the triumphal chariot of the Proletariat". - Louis Aragon was loyal to Moscow and Stalinism well into the 1960s, even defending the Moscow Trials in articles. When the scope of Stalinist terror was finally revealed, he distanced himself from Soviet communism and condemned its past and continuing crimes. - Several minor tears, somewhat dusty and smudged. Collector's note in pencil to the first page.
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Beaumarchais, Marie-Thérèse-Amélie Caron de, third wife of Pierre Beaumarchais (1751-1816).
Autograph letter. No place or date, [after 1809].
4to. 4 pp. Concerning her husband, the polymath Pierre Beaumarchais (1732-99), whom she describes as "mon mari et mon meilleur ami pendant vingt ans, et je n'ai rien vu en lui que de louable et de généraux: les nombreuses persécutions dont il a été souvent la victime, n'ont jamais eu le pouvoir de troubler la sérénité de son âme [...]". - Beaumarchais lived with his lover, Marie-Thérèse de Willer-Mawlaz, for 12 years before she became his third wife in 1786. Together they had a daughter, Eugénie. Beaumarchais was accused by his enemies of poisoning his first two wives in order to lay claim to their family inheritance. While there was insufficient evidence to support the accusations, whether or not the poisonings took place is still the subject of debate. - Somewhat browned.
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Cocteau, Jean, French artist (1889-1963).
Autograph letter signed. No place, 3. VIII. 1955.
4to. 1 p. Written in the year he was made a member of the Académie française and of the Royal Academy of Belgium: "Bien sure ma petite fille que je ferai ton texte et que je verrai le film - je rentre à St. Moritz et il est probable (sauf ordre du médecin) que je resterai au Cap [i.e. Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat] jusqu'à 15 Septembre. J'ai eu gros travail avec ces 2 discours; français et belge [...]". - Traces of folds, otherwise in excellent condition.
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Cocteau, Jean, French artist (1889-1963).
"Causerie". Autograph manuscript. [Vevey, 1938].
Oblong folio. 35 pp. on 37 ff. Brown ink on drawing-paper with some additions and corrections in pencil. Original wrappers. Screw-bound. Illustrated with two original ink drawings, one signed (ca. 53 x 29,5 cm and 19 x 19,6 cm). - Together with an 11-page typed copy of the manuscript with notes and corrections in ink and pencil. Also, a typed description of the manuscript and receipt from the "Librairie Francaise" in London, as well as 3 autograph letters signed with 3 autograph envelopes by Cocteau. Beautiful draft for a lecture given by Cocteau during his four-month stay with his friend, the avant-garde composer Ivor Markevitch, in Vevey, Switzerland in 1938. The French text ranges from apparently incoherent cues to elaborate lines of thought, touching highly diverse subject matters such as surrealism, cubism, jazz, poetry, religion, Orphism, and some of Cocteau's favourite artists and historical figures including Picasso, Max Ernst, Marcel Proust, Baudelaire, and Napoleon. The "Causerie" revolves around an expansive definition of poetry and the idea that poetry is truth itself: "Epoch without sacred monsters. I am one of the last writers whose mythology gradually forms as he exists. Legends, follies, inaccuracies. Advantage of legends; one burns a straw man. Legends surrounding men living in a glass house and recounting everything [...] - We hate the truth. Here we come to the heart of our subject. Poetry is scandalous because it is truth itself. Poets, children (Let [them] come to me, he knew what he did). Quote the Swan in majuscules, very proud. Pure poetry. Nonsense from Minos and Pasiphae. Poetry everywhere. Vinci's time. Believed poet, painter, etc. Alas, we've gone too far. Any photographer is a poet [...] Beware of serious men, laughter rends a man in two, reaching the soul, following the tree, the bird. False grandeur, grandeur laughs. For Max Ernst's admirable photo collages, montages, etc. Poetry of posters, of window displays, of street shops. Music Hall, fun fair for a dime, before, after. Dangerous poetry, poet's room, police raid. Any suspect. Poets come from a country where the language is neither alive nor dead, not yet born, heard. The somnambulist poet exploited by forces, he cannot mingle too much, else he ends up with evil. I do not believe in precursors but loneliness is still loneliness. Even in real poetry [...]". - This beautiful manuscript, complete with two elegant original drawings, is highly illustrative of Jean Cocteau's thinking, influences, and lifelong themes. It was acquired by the literary scholar Bill Chapman in 1954, when he was writing his doctoral thesis on "The Aesthetics of Jean Cocteau". The transcript with extensive notes, explaining Cocteau's allusions and identifying his sources, was prepared by Chapman, who corresponded with Cocteau during his research, as the three enclosed letters show. Referring to the manuscript, Cocteau thanks Chapman for being "the Champollion of his hieroglyphs" and discourages speculative interpretations: "Merci d'essayer d'être le Champollion de mes hieroglyphes. Trop de gens prennent encore des vocables hieroglyphiques des poètes pour de simples figures qu'ils interprètent à leur usage personnel. Soyez l'ami des Nombres et de notre algèbre. Haïssez la Fantaisie et dites vous que nous ne voulons pas être admirés mais être crus. Marco Polo fut appelé le menteur de Venise, parce qu'il témoignait [...]" (Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferret, 22 Feb. 1953). - In a letter from 27 March 1953, Cocteau affirms his position that "artistic and religious audacity are not incompatible", naming the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain as an influence. In the final letter of the collection, Cocteau taunts the author Jean-Pierre Millecam as an "adorable egocentric" whose selfhood is the "star that governs his sky" (25 Feb. 1954). Apparently, Chapman had warned Cocteau of Millecam's character. - Deep tears to the spine and abrasions to the cardboard wrappers. The first two pages of the manuscript with the illustrations (on verso) are loose. Some pages show minor tears, two pages have further minor damage. Some browning. Two of the letters to Chapman show some tears and creasing.
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Dreyfus, Abraham, French journalist and playwright (1847-1926).
Autograph letter signed and autograph calling card. [Paris] and Aeschi, 7 Feb. and 22 July (no year).
8vo and calling card format. Together 2 pp. To a colleague with compliments on his article about the play "Francillon" (1887) by Alexandre Dumas fils that appeared in the "Nouvelle Revue", pointing out that he especially liked the postscript: "Je viens de lire votre excellent article de la Nouvelle Revue sur Francillon et je vous en fais tous mes compliments. Mais vous ne serez pas trop étonné si je vous dis que c'est le P.S. de cet article qui m'a surtout plu [...]". On headed stationery of the "Cercle artistique et littéraire". - To a friend sending his thanks and regards: "Abraham Dreyfus [printed] vous envoie ses remerciements et amitiés". - With traces of former mounting on verso.
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Duhamel, Georges , writer (1884-1966).
Autograph letter signed. Paris, 18. IV. 1819.
4to. 1 p. Writing about his exhausting and turbulent life and apologizing for not responding earlier: "Je mene depuis ma démobilisation une vie absurede et épuisante. Croyez le bien je suis désolé d'avoir mis si longtemps à vous répondre et de n'avoir pas trouvé le temps de retourner passer quelques heures dans votre cordiale intimité. Je vous adresse la lettre en question, lettre à laquelle je n'ai d'ailleurs pas encore répondre [...]".
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Dumas, Alexandre (père), French writer (1802-1870).
2 autograph letters signed. Paris and no place, 10 April 1847 and no date.
8vo. Together (1+1 =) 2 pp. To his friend, the theatrical agent Jean-Baptiste Porcher (1792-1864), concerning his play "Paul Jones": "Il est [...] entendu que la vente faite de Paul Jones ne porte aucune atteinte à votre propriété de moitié [...] Il est bien entendu que les billets vous appartiennent en toute propriété [...]" (Paris, 10 April 1847). In the other letter, probably written to Porcher's wife, he thanks for a souvenir: "Maintenant mille merci Madame de votre bon et cher souvenir - oui j'aime fort le pate de lapin [...]". - Enclosed is a printed circular "A ses concitoyens de Seine-et-Oise. Alexandre Dumas. Candidat a la représantation nationale".
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Farrère, Claude, French Navy officer and writer (1876-1957).
11 autograph letters signed. Biarritz and Paris, 1943-1953.
Folio and 8vo. Altogether 25 ½ pp. Interesting collection of letters, all addressed to a good friend named Paul whom he calls "Grand" and who appears to be a fellow writer. In a letter from 30 Dec. 1943 Farrère thanks him for dedicating to him a piece called "Fée du platane" and remembers his good friend Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925): "Mon Grand, il y a des semaines, que j'aurais dú t'écrire / au moins depuis le jour que j'ai reçu ta fée du platane, une des plus belles choses que tu aies écrites, et que je suis fier que tu m'aies dédiée. J'ai pensée en la lisant, aux derniers vers / testament qu'écrivit Pierre Louÿs, que nous devons toujours méditer, nous qui touchons à la plume / te souviens-tu?". - In a letter from 1947 he expresses his outrage against Paul Claudel (1868-1955), elected to the Académie française on 4 April 1946: "A propos de l'election de Claudel, j'ai été proprement insulté. Car je ne sais lequel de ces deux bas canards [Claudel et Brisson] a insignué que toutes les attaques brissonnesques contre l'Académie datent de mon élection [...]". Farrère was himself elected to a chair at the Académie française on 26 March 1935, in competition with Paul Claudel, partly thanks to the lobbying efforts of Pierre Benoit. - Further, Farrère reflects on his novels, like "Fern-Errol" and "Homme Seul", which he describes as the "least superficial" works of his life: "Mon Fern-Errol peut plaire ou déplaire / mais je suis sûr que c'est avec mon Homme Seul, ce que j'ai écrit de moins superficiel de toute ma vie […]" (Biarritz, 27 Nov. 1943).
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Foucher, Paul-Henri, playwright, theatre and music critic (1810-1875).
16 autograph letters, all but one signed. [Paris], mostly 1827.
8vo and 4to. Together 13 pp. All letters are addressed to Foucher's friend, the writer Alcide Hyacinthe Dubois de Beauchesne, and mostly written in 1827, when Foucher was still employed at the War Department in Paris. In most of the letters he asks Beauchesne for tickets, but also for other favours: "[...] c'est jeudi à 8 heures, mon cher Beauchesne, que je vous ferai subir un des plus rudes travaux que je puisse vous commander... je vous lirai les trois premiers actes d'un drame [...]". - In 1828 Foucher met Alexandre Soumet, who advised him to read the play "Amy Robsart" by his brother-in-law Victor Hugo. Hugo himself found the play so bad that he intended to burn it, but he consented to let Foucher revise it. The play combined comedy and tragedy, and Foucher, under the influence of the enormous success of Shakespeare as recently performed in Paris, revised it further and produced it under his own name in 1829, but it failed so completely that Hugo came forward and avowed his own share in the production, taking responsibility of the non-success. Nevertheless, the whole affair did gain the young Foucher some notability. - Some letters on stationery with printed letterhead "Ministère de la Guerre".
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France, Anatole, French writer (1844-1924).
Autograph manuscript signed. No place or date.
4to. 16 pp. mounted on paper. Modern half cloth. Witty short novel titled "Histoire contemporain. L'orthographe", signed on the last page. - France's "L'histoire contemporaine" was published in four parts between 1897 and 1901. The last part, "Monsieur Bergeret à Paris" (1901), deals with the Dreyfus affair. France had signed Zola's manifesto in support of Dreyfus. In the manuscript, Monsieur Bergeret joins an association of grammarians founded by Théophile Sopilixidrette: "Monsieur Bergeret méditait dans son cabinet sur l'aptitude des foules à l'erreur, quand il reçut la visite de Monsieur Théophile Sopilixidrette. Monsieur Sopilixidrette est un homme parfaitement poli, un peu timide et très doux. Mais on ne peut s'y tromper. Sa douceur est l'inflexible douceur des croyants. Monsieur Théophile Sopilixidrette est un réformateur. Il travaille à la réforme avec un zèle religieux et un fanatisme candide. L'oeil ardet et la geste prompte, il ouvrit aux yeux de Monsieur Bergeret un registre couvert de signatueres. Monsieru, dit-il, j'ai fondé l'union des grammairiens pour opérer la révision du dictionnaire en suppriment 2 les anomalies [...]". - Some notes in coloured pencil and corrections.
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Frondaie, Pierre, French poet, novelist, and playwright (1884-1948).
Autograph letter signed. Territet [Vaud canton], 1 May [ca. 1942].
Oblong 8vo. 1 p. on single leaf. Thanking a journalist for a positive review of his novel "Montmartre", published in 1942: "Je vous remercie de votre article si aimable au sujet de Montmartre. Il m'a été fort agréable et je vous prie de recevoir l'expression de mes sentiments les meilleurs et les plus sincères [...]". - "Montmartre" was Pierre Frondaie's last published novel. From 1942 until his death, Frondaie managed the Théâtre de l'Ambigu in Paris, where he directed several of his own plays. - With traces of former mounting.
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Gide, André, French writer (1869-1951).
7 autograph letters signed. Cuverville (Seine-Maritime) and n. p., 1902.
Various formats. Altogether 16 ½ pp. on 13 ff. Important French correspondence with the publisher and friend Édouard Ducoté revolving around the literary journal L'Ermitage (1896-1906). In what is probably the earliest letter of the collection, Gide announces that Henri Albert would be willing to publish a passage of his latest Nietzsche translation in L'Ermitage. Gide was eager to see the text in the February issue but Charles Chanvin, another editor, had put Albert off: "It would be good if it appeared in February lest it lose its freshness [...] - But Chanvin told him that L'Ermitage probably would not be able to print it before March. Please speak up to inform him [...]". Albert's translation of an unpublished preface to "Human, All Too Human" ultimately appeared in June 1902. - Gide published two articles in the February issue of 1902 but was highly critical of the copy-editing or the lack thereof: "Effectively, coming back here, I found L'Ermitage. It is really irritating that nobody takes care of revising the proofs one last time. My article is full of very deplorable errors: the apostrophes fall randomly and in such a way that one often understands nothing anymore [...] Why is the title not centered? All of this could be ignored in a polemical magazine but L'Ermitage aspires to be something else [...]" (Cuverville, "Mercredi"). Gide even asks whether the composition of the other article is still intact, as he would like for it to be corrected and reprinted. Concerning this article "Les limites de l'art", Gide had hoped that it would "pass unnoticed" so as "not to amuse Bouhélier too much". This alludes to Gide's turbulent relationship to Saint-Georges de Bouhélier and his literary movement "Le naturisme", an antagonistic reaction to symbolism. - The proofreading problem appears to have persisted, for Gide complains about more errors in the March issue. The letter concerning this issue is highly interesting, as Gide talks about a creative blockage and exhaustion: "We're now twelve days in the countryside. The weather is splendid and spring has begun... Much less so in my head. My mind is frozen as if it were winter; not a sentence, not a word stirs. And I feel as if I had written 'The New Christ'. For twenty days now, the proofs of my book are awaiting me; even to correct them is beyond my abilities; I only have some [energy] for sowing my flowers and for putting hay around my roses. In the meantime, I've read L'Ermitage. The issue is too good not to suffer from being so miserably corrected [...]". The book in question is very likely Gide's famous novel "The Immoralist". - In the only dated letter in this collection, from 15 March 1902, Gide announces some "very mediocre verses" by "a friend of a friend" which he was asked to forward to L'Ermitage. Despite his severe words, Gide casts doubt on his ability to judge the work and leaves the final decision to Ducoté: "I responded directly to my friend that I did not consider them good and that I could not recommend them to you [...] But (I continued to write) that I could, after all, be mistaken and that I would leave to you the office of the final court of appeal [...]". The poet in question was Maurice Cremnitz, a close friend of Guillaume Apollinaire. - Gide spent parts of the summer of 1902 "vagabonding between Biarritz and Cauterets" and planned to visit Ducoté in La Bouille (Normandy): "Yes, I am more than hoping for September; the other day a chiromancer revealed a fatal line to me, so terrible that I do not dare promise anything anymore, but please be assured that I still have the desire and that I am willing to come see you in La Bouille". Both letters in the collection mentioning La Bouille are primarily concerned with Gide's interest in the young Jacques Copeau. After congratulating Ducoté for accepting a text by Francis de Miomandre, Gide praises Copeau's manuscript but expresses some reservations with respect to its publication: "Concerning J. Copeau, I admit that his manuscript is far from displeasing to me; it is well thought, well written and emotionally intelligent; if it were not for my book, I would immediately tell you: publish. But I would have wished L'Ermitage already to have made J. Copeau known for other things; otherwise I fear that L'Ermitage will appear to publish primarily for the subject matter. Furthermore, I would like this prose to be published a little later. November, for example, at the moment when the new edition of 'The Immoralist' appears. Thus, should L'Ermitage lack a little bit of content and you, on the other hand, keep another manuscript of Copeau's in your drawer that, according to you, is not lacking in taste, could you not publish something else by him first? [...]". In the second letter, Gide renews his praise but again urges Ducoté to publish additional texts, as he finds the manuscript "a little bit meager for someone who isn't a Mr. Jammes". In 1902 only Copeau's "Notes d'Enfance" were published in the November issue of L'Ermitage. Gide and Copeau were among the founders of La Nouvelle Revue Française in 1909. - A letter concerning Gide's play "Bethsabé" is likely to be the latest item in the collection. By coincidence, both Ducoté and Gide had written plays based on the biblical story of Bathsheba. In the letter, Gide reassures Ducoté that their works can coexist: "The coincidence is curious indeed but I do not believe that there is much to worry about. What actually surprises me is the difference of our pieces since they are based on the same figures: the theme, the form, the characters, everything differs. I think this stems from the almost unlimited latitude that the Biblical description offers the imagination. And this explains how, for two so dissimilar dramas, the Bible could have tempted two so dissimilar spirits as ours but both solicitous about works of art [...]". L'Ermitage published "Bethsabé" in the January and February issues of 1903. The fate of Ducoté's play "Uriah's wife" is unknown. - Well preserved. With collector's notes in pencil. A third of the second sheet of the letter concerning Copeau's new manuscript has been cut out, but there is no apparent loss of text.
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Gide, André, French writer and Nobel laureate (1869-1951).
7 autograph letters signed. Cuverville, Karlsbad and no place, 1908-1948.
4to and 8vo. Altogether 16 pp. Collection of letters addressed to various colleagues, among them the writer and editor Alfred Vallette (1858-1935), writer Henri Vandeputte (1877-1952), and essayist Henri Massis (1886-1970). - In an emotional letter to Henri Vandeputte, Gide mentions his friendship with the writer Charles-Louis Philippe (1874-1909), who had passed away the previous year: "Je t'envoie une dactylographie du choix que j'ai fait dans la très belle correspondance de Philippe que tu avais bien voulu me confier, choix abondant comme tu verras car ces lettres sont admirables, c'est-à-dire que j'en ai pris le plus possible [...]. Ces lettres m'ont profondément ému, elles sauraient émouvoir plus d'un lecteur; je t'y retrouve, toi, autant presque que Philippe et t'aime davantage d'avoir sur les mériter. Rarement, peut-être, l'amitié ne s'est exprimée de manière plus tendre, plus pathétique, plus confiante et plus désolée [...] " (Cuverville, 23 Sept. 1910). - A letter to Alfred Vallette from 26 July 1912 concerns a new edition of his "Prétextes": he wants to make some changes to the text, and there is also a new chapter in the new edition. - Some brownstaining.
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Hugo, Victor, French writer (1802-1885).
Autograph letter signed ("Victor-M. Hugo"). N. p., 21. V. 1824.
4to. 2 pp. on a bifolium. With autograph address and traces of seal. Passionate and elegant letter by the young Hugo to the oppositional publisher Joseph-Dominique Magalon (1794-1867) on the occasion of his release from prison. Hugo expresses his relief and joy about Magalon's release and explains that he had previously lost contact with Charles Alfred Frédéric Fayot, a co-publisher of Magalon's "L'Album", who had served as an intermediary for the two men and thus did not know exactly when Magalon would be set free. Mentioning his own part in the effort to release Magalon, Hugo emphasizes that what little he did was only his duty: "I have not done anything for you that was not part of what I consider the rigorous line of my obligations [...]". If anyone needs to thank somebody, Hugo writes, it is he himself "for the pleasure that your noble sentiments afforded me". Although impeded by "numerous occupations and an eye complaint that torments me", Hugo expresses his hope to meet Magalon soon. - The letter was written in reaction to a note that Magalon had added to his 1823 publication "Souvenirs Poétiques de Deux Prisonniers", thanking Victor Hugo, Chateaubriand, and others for their support. Magalon had been imprisoned in Poissy under harsh conditions and fell ill before being transferred to Paris, where he completed his 13-month sentence. In the note, Magalon apologizes for unfavourable criticism of Hugo's first major publication "Odes et poésies nouvelles" (1822) that he had written for "L'Album" before his imprisonment: "On the occasion of my transfer to Poissy M. Hugo took vengeance in a way worthy of his noble character, be it by petitioning ministers for me, or by making me the object of urgent recommendations that eased the horror of my situation" (Magalon, pp. 107f.). Despite his early fame founded by the "Odes et poésies nouvelles", which earned him a royal pension, Victor Hugo's influence at the time was largely due to his father, the highly decorated General Joseph-Léopold Hugo. Although Victor Hugo was a committed royalist in his early years, the earnest support for the republican Magalon illustrates his integrity and magnanimity in his lifelong fight for justice that forced him into exile 1851. - Some insignificant foxing and minor tears. Modern mounting on stiff paper. V. Hugo, Correspondance. Tome IV (Paris 1952), pp. 116 f. J.-D. Magalon, A. Barginet, Souvenirs Poétiques de Deux Prisonniers (Paris 1823). Cf. F. Letessier, "Les misères d'un journaliste sous la Restauration: J. D. Magalon, Chateaubriand et Victor Hugo", in: Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé : Lettres d'humanité, n°18, décembre 1959.
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Mallarmé, Stéphane, French poet and critic (1842-1898).
3 autograph letters signed. Avignon, [Paris], and n. p., 1869, [1892] and n. d.
8vo and 12mo. Altogether 9 pp. on 5 ff. The most important letter in this collection, to his close friend Armand Renaud, was written on 5 Dec. 1869 towards the end of a creative blockage that had begun earlier that same year. Suffering from an old illness and studying for a humanities degree, Mallarmé wished to take a year's leave from his post as a teacher in Avignon. He informs Renaud about his request to the Ministry of Education and his financial worries: "I find myself with hardly enough to get by". Therefore, he asks Armand to inform M. Lebourgeois of his request, who should in turn use his influence at the Ministry to obtain a higher allowance for Mallarmé. He also hints at the abandonment of his first literary project since 1866, the philosophical poem "Igitur", because of his studies: "I worked on what I told you but a serious occupation, which must be that of my forced leisure (the humanities degree in view of the doctorate), will give my thoughts a different direction. To tell the truth, a year of Latin and Greek suddenly appearing is a fortunate and interesting perspective". The Ministry granted Mallarmés leave, and during the year 1870 he worked on a linguistic thesis and a Latin thesis on divinity, neither of which he completed. - Mallarmé did not return to Avignon but stayed in Paris where he tried to launch the magazine "Art décoratif" in 1872. In the undated second letter, addressed to a M. Prunère, he announces that the painter Claudius Popelin (1825-92) would contribute a frontispiece to the project, admitting that he did not dare ask for other illustrations: "I saw M. Popelin who was charming and eager to do me the favour. I thus have the promise for a frontispiece [...] Very happy and very proud of my success, I did not dare mention the little ornament that I would like to see at the head of the first page, a kind of title serving as a transition for the reader who browses between the beautiful frontispiece of the cover and the text columns of the first page where it would be placed at the head [...] Do I dare ask you to procure that, just chatting?". The project ultimately fell through, and the recipient of the letter has not been identified. In 1874 Mallarmé launched the avant-garde fashion magazine "La Dernière Mode" and published a few issues as its sole editor. - The last letter in the collection is written to the sculptor and painter Albert Bartholomé (1848-1928) on behalf of the painter Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942), a former student of Mallarmé. Blanche was hoping that the École des Beaux-Arts would buy one of his paintings following the 1892 exhibition of the Société nationale des beaux-arts at the Palais du Champ de Mars. The painting can be identified with his famous portrait of Marcel Proust, today in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay: "I gathered some information and I communicate it to you so as not to exasperate the terrible man we love. It is necessary that M. Blanche immediately addresses the director of the Beaux-Arts with a request to 'include the no. of his painting in the acquisitions made at the Champ-de-Mars'. This formality is indispensable and it will be followed by a recommendation, which, I believe, will have its effect [...]" (10 May, postmarked 1892). - The letter to Armand Renaud on mourning stationery; the letter to Prunère with deep tears in the folds and some browning but no text loss.
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Montherlant, Henry de, essayist and novelist (1895-1972).
Autograph manuscript "Faiblesse". No place, [1913].
8vo and 4to. Ca. 66 pp. Stored loosely in wrappers. Valuable early notes which Montherlant later used for his works "La Ville dont le Prince est un enfant" (1951) and "Les Garçons" (1967). - In the epilogue of "La Ville dont le Prince est un enfant" Montherlant writes that he remembers his notes for this work, which he made when he was seventeen years old ("cette pièce est le plus anciennement conçu de mes ouvrages [...] J'ai sous les yeux, en effet, les notes, les fragments de scènes que j'en rédigeai en 1913, c'est-à-dire à dix-sept ans. Je ne parvins pas à mettre sur pied cette œuvre"). When he published "Les Garçons" in 1967, he explains that he first had the idea for this work ("La Ville") in 1912/13, but then wanted to write a novel and created "Les Garçons". - The wrappers are captioned "Faiblesse. 4 actes prose" in blue pencil and "Ville" in red pencil. Montherlant tries to come to terms with having been expelled from the Catholic school of Sainte-Croix de Neuilly for being a "corruptor of souls" on 5 April 1912, when aged almost seventeen. The piece revolves around the 17-year-old Jacqueline, an educator called Bernard and a director, M. Lachâtre. Montherlant has the girl's mother think: "un homme de 40 ans sous la surveillance de qui se trouve une petite fille de 17, et qui abuse de son autorité sur elle pour l'entraîner, c'est déjà quelque chose de pas bien propre, mais quand cette petite est un être d'une faiblesse et d'une impulsion exceptionnelles [...] je ne sais pas si vous trouvez ça beau ou esthétique, mais moi, je trouve ça dégoûtant". In Act IV a fight occurs between Bernard and Lachâtre which anticipates the final scene of "La Ville", in which Soubrier and the Abbé de Pradts quarrel: "Et nous nous croyons les justes et les exceptions, et nous ne songions pas à notre faiblesse, à nos deux faiblesses devant un petit être qui, avec son désarroi et sa jeunesse, a été le seul qui tint bon. Quelle faiblesse, mon Dieu! Allez, on n'est pas coupable d'avoir foi en soi [...]". - With annotations and corrections throughout. Some browning.
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[Murger, Henri, French novelist and poet (1822-1861).]
3 printed portraits. N. p. o. d.
Small 8vo (108 x 154 mm, 92 x 146 mm, 92 x 144 mm). One etching and one lithograph on cardboard. One lithograph on paper. Two engravings, one signed by the Parisian publisher "J. Bestault", the other an undated but probably posthumous print by Gustave Staal (1817-82) showing Murger within an allegorical frame alluding to his most important works, including "Scènes de la vie de bohème". Both appear to be based on Eugène-Louis Piridon's half-profile lithograph, which is included in a cropped copy. - All with traces of former mounting on the reverse.
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Nion, François de, French playwright (1854-1923).
Autograph letter signed. N. p. o. d.
12mo. 1 p. Congratulating a friend: "Toutes mes félicitations les plus amicales et les plus affectives et bien cordialement à vous aujourd'hui et toujours [...]". - With traces of former mounting.
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Noriac, Jules, French journalist and writer (1827-1882).
Autograph letter signed. No place or date.
8vo. 1 page. With autograph address. Asking a friend, probably the German musicologist Adolf Bernhard Marx (1795-1866), to publish a text of his in a prominent place in his journal, leaving the layout up to him: "Veux tu me faire le plaisir de faire passer ça dans tes informations a la meilleure place possible. Arrange ça comme tu sais [...] Bon pour dix lignes [...]". - Signed twice. With traces of former mounting on verso.
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Ohnet, Georges, French novelist (1848-1918).
26 autograph letters signed and one autograph note signed. La Ferté-sous-Jouarre (Seine-et-Marne), Le Plessis-Trévise (Val-de-Marne) and n. p., 1877-1916.
8vo and 12mo. Altogether 30 ¾ pp. and 6 lines on 82 ff. Together with a drypoint portrait by Evert van Muyden (100 x 142 mm, plate), two prints of a contemporary photograph (40 x 73 mm), and a copy of the "Album Mariani" about Georges Ohnet. Extensive correspondence spanning almost four decades from the onset of Ohnet's steep literary career to his final years. The earliest dated letter, from 13 August 1877, is written to a journalist who had apparently criticized Ohnet's play "Marthe". Rather submissively, Ohnet announces that he will go back to work and try to satisfy his critic in the future: "Je vois que vous me faites de sérieux reproches et je sens qu'ils sont merités. Je vous suis, croyez le bien, très reconnaissant de m'avoir dit votre manière de voir avec tant de modération. Je sais qu'il n'y a pas d'homme plus impartial et plus juste que vous. Je vais donc me remettre au travail et faire tous mes efforts pour tâcher de vous satisfaire [...]". - Two letters dated 1892 concern the actor Léon Noël. After a spell at the Théâtre du Gymnase under Victor Koning, Noël was hoping for an engagement at the Comédie Française. In these two letters, probably to Jules Claretie, the long-term director of the Comédie, Ohnet unsuccessfully recommends Noël and criticizes Koning's decision not to engage him: "Non, Koning ne garde pas Noël. Et il a bien tort. Mais il a tant d'autres torts! C'est une désolation pour ses amis véritables, dont vous étes, et c'est pourquoi je vous dis cela. Partant un véritable intéret à Noël, j'aurais été heureux de contribuer à le placer à la Comédie. Mais aux raisons que vous me donnez, je n'ai rien à répondre [...]". - In 1902 Pierre Valdagne's "La Confession de Nicaise" was published by Ohnet's publisher Jean Ollendorff. In an undated letter to the author, Ohnet praises the book, associating it with the philosophy of Fichte, and jokingly encourages Valdagne to write "les aventures de Nicaise" as a sequel: "Je viens de finir la confession de Nicaise. Fichte! Je disais à Mendel [Isidore Mendel, director at Ollendorff], Jeudi, que vous n'avez rien fait de cette face là, et que le livre était d'une excellente tenue. Vous me faites l'effet d'un chat qui jusqu'à présent a fait patte de velours, et qui brusquement sort les griffes. Je répète que vous vous soyez arrêté au moment précis où la vie commençait pour Nicaise et pour Réno. Les doux fêtes de joie lachées dans le monde, en possession complète de leur face et avec la conscience très claire de leur infamie, auraient donné un beau spectacle. Mais rien n'est perdu et vous pouvez nous faire les aventures de Nicaise [...]". - From 1914 to 1917 Ohnet published a literary journal about his life in Paris during the war. One letter can be dated to the time of the First Battle of the Marne in 1914, when the front closed up to Paris and the city took in wounded soldiers. Ohnet thanks the recipient, a M. Beaunier, for a letter to his wife in connection with his sister Juliette, an Ursuline in Brive who had allegedly been healed from a severe disease in Lourdes in 1889. He announces that she will write to sister Juliette despite her demanding work as a nurse behind the front. Ohnet complains about the poor preparation of the defense and medical care and reports that "Parisians put beds everywhere" to care for the wounded: "La défense des Blessés n'avait pas été préparée plus que la défense de Paris. Et pendant que les nouveaux chefs mettaient des canons dans les forts, les parisiens plaçaient des lits, partout, pour recevoir les pauvres petits soldats qu'on rapportait des champs de bataille. Ceux à qui votre admirable femme montrera son beau visage penché sur leur souffrance, seront déjà réconfortés". - The last dated letter is to Alfred Humblot, a manager at his publishing house, concerning proofs. Ohnet also asks Humblot to obtain a book on cartomancy for him. The book should be "well done and serious", comparable to Adolphe Desbarrolles' "Les Mystères de la main", a popular work on chiromancy: "Vous seriez bien aimable de faire chercher s'il existe en librairie un livre sur l'art de tirer les cartes - ou sur la cartomancie, qui soit un livre bien fait et sérieux, dans le genre des mystères de la main de Desbarrolles et non un bouquin à l'usage des concierges. Cela doit exciter [...]". - 8 letters on stationery with lithographed letterhead of Ohnet's house "Les abymes" in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre and one letter with printed letterhead of "Bois-la-Croix" in Le Plessis-Trévise. Generally well preserved. Occasional stains and smudging; one letter formerly torn apart but restored. All with traces of folds.
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Pagnol, Marcel, French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker (1895-1974).
2 autograph letters signed. Paris, 3 Nov. 1964 and 1 Dec. 1966.
4to. Together (1½+1½ =) 3 pp. Interesting letters about two of Pagnol's most important works. The first letter concerns his 1938 drama "La femme du boulanger" ("The Baker's Wife"); while the recipient wishes to rewrite the film for the stage, Pagnol doubts whether this would work due to the many close-ups: "Je ne sais pas si la femme de boulanger est une bonne pièce de théâtre, car c'est un film de gros plans. Peut-être faudrait-il, dans la mise en scène, suivre le Boulanger avec un projecteur, comme au music-hall? Si vous allez voir la représentation de Guy Alland, pensez-y [...]" (Paris, 23 Nov. 1964). In fact, the film even became the basis of an American musical in 1989. - The second letter refers to his play "Topaze" from 1928. The comedy in four acts was filmed in 1936 under the same title, and 1966 saw a TV adaptation. Pagnol is pleased with the success: "Jamais aucune de mes pièces n'a eu tant de publicité, et si bien placée: je vous en suis particulièrement reconnaissant, et la montée presque continue des recettes me réjouit; non pas à cause du succès d'argent: il me semple que notre réussite, près de quarante ans après la création, est beaucoup plus importante qu'un triomphe de générale [...]" (Paris, 1 Dec. 1966). - On stationery with printed name. Traces of folding, some stains, otherwise in very good condition.
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Paléologue, Maurice Georges, French diplomat and writer (1859-1944).
Autograph postcard signed. [Giens Peninsula, Var], no date.
12mo. 8 lines. With autograph address. To the Parisian publishing house and bookshop Émile-Paul Frères, ordering a copy of the latest edition of a therapeutic handbook: "Prière d'envoyer un formulaire thérapeutique de Gilbert y Michel, 1926. (Doin, éd?) à Mme la baronne de Berckheim, Villa Polynesia Giens, près Hyères (Var). Prière de mettre cet ouvrage à mon compte [...]". - On a picture postcard showing a coastal landscape and buildings in the environment of Hyères. Traces of former mounting. Well preserved.
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Paulhan, Jean, French writer and publicist (1884-1968).
Autograph letter signed. N. p., 13. I. 1954.
12mo. 2 pp. on 2 ff. Charming letter to an unidentified recipient, in French, congratulating her on the birth of a child. Paulhan mentions that he heard the news from his close friend Marcel Jouhandeau and alludes to an uncomplicated birth as Marcel "would not even have mentioned it" had it been difficult, as that is the norm and thus less interesting. He develops this thought, extending it to gossip in general and suggesting that we "talk about 'verbiage' and the power of words only when they do not have the slightest power and are not even registered". This is a joke at the expense of Jouhandeau, who apparently had also mentioned or "criticized" his own birth. In closing, Paulhan invites the recipient to visit him at the "Nouvelle Revue Française" so that he can lend her some of Jouhandeau's books, as it is a "shame at her age that she has not read any". - Traces of former mounting on verso. Well preserved.
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Régamey, Frédéric, writer and illustrator (1849-1925).
27 autograph letters signed. London [and Paris], 1872-1880.
12mo and 8vo. Together 44½ pp. Extensive correspondence with the biographer and historian Maurice Tourneux (1849-1917) providing insights into their friendship, including some invitations, orders, and other matters: "Certainement que je ferai le dessin que vous me demandez. Je suis trop heureux de cette occasion de vous être agréable pour la laisser échapper. Je regrette de ne pas être libre Dimanche prochain [...]". In another letter, Régamey wishes to give Tourneux's address to his brother Félix Régamey (1844-1907), who also worked as an illustrator: "Je viens vous demander un service. Je me suis permis de donner votre adresse à mon frère Félix qui vous envéra une lettre pour moi que je vous serais bien obligé de me retourner. Quand je vous vérai je vous expliquerai cela [...]". Régamey also made some photographs for his friend: "Les photographies seront prêtes Mercredi soir à 9 h. Les 2 premières épreuves coûteront 5 f et ensuite si vous en voulez d'autres 1 f la pièce [...]". - Régamey is known for his paintings and engravings of sport subjects, especially of fencing and horse riding, but also for his military scenes. Tourneux's principal bibliographical achievement was the "Bibliographie de l’histoire de Paris pendant la Révolution française" (3 vols., 1890-1901), which was crowned by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
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Stolberg, Friedrich Leopold Graf zu, Dichter (1750-1819).
Eigenh. Brief mit U. Berlin, 22. IX. 1789.
1 S. auf Doppelblatt. 4to. An einen Grafen über eine Handschrift Photios I., die das Trinity College in Cambridge fünf Jahre zuvor nach Dänemark verliehen hatte und deren Verbleib zu eruieren ein junger Engländer beauftragt worden sei, der nun allerdings verhindert sei, weswegen Stolberg sich an seiner Stelle nach der Veröffentlichung und Retournierung der Handschrift erkundigt: "Le College de la Trinité à Cambridge a donné la commission à un jeune Anglois, qui s'était proposé d'aller a Dannemarc, de s'informer au sujet d'un manuscrit original du dictionnaire de Photius, qu'elle y a envoyé sur la requisition du Roi d'Angleterre, il y a cinq ans. Empêché de faire le voyage projeté, il m'a chargé de cette affaire et j'ose supplier Votre Excellence de vouloir faire prendre les informations suivantes: Si ce manuscrit a été publié? ou quand il doit être publié? et quand on le renverra au collège de la Trinité à Cambridge? [...]".
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Arnould, Sophie, French operatic soprano (1740-1802).
6 autograph letters signed. Luzarches, June-November 1800.
4to and 8vo. Together 23 pp. on 6 bifolia, one with autograph address on verso. Amicable correspondence with Renée Françoise Adélaïde Lemonnier (1767-1833), wife of the mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), at the Palais National des Sciences et des Arts in Paris. - Missing her greatly, not even feeling it in her power to complain about Lemonnier's new friend: "Oh! je vous ensure mon amie [...] je m'ennui fort de votre absence. Je n'ai seulemen[t] pas les Ressource d'aller (comme à Paris) voir par ma fenestre, si je puis vous appercevoir à la Votre. Je n'ai pas même les Ressources de me mettre de mauvaise humeur contre cette figure à Callot, de Madame M. qui a pris ma place auprès de vous, pour! pour vous aimer moins que je ne vous aimes, assurément [...]" (12 Prairial [1 June]). - In great admiration for Napoleon, crediting him with having an impact on nature as well as politics: "Cet incroyable génie de Bonnaparté s'occupe du Mayence d'y Remédier. Cette Confusion semble s'étendre sur la Nature. Les saison paraissent aussi changées, aussy dérangées que la politique [...] que nous sommes heureux au milieux d'un tel caho, d'avoir un Bonnaparte [...] celuy la est mon dieu [...]" (4 Messidor [23 June]). - About her poor health, having to spend a month in bed, reminding her to be less trusting, alluding to her solitude, and asking for news about mutual friends: "Moy, je vie dans ma maison des champs je ne dirais pas sans chagrins! n'y souris car, J'ay trop d'objets de peines, de Regrêts pour que cela puisse Estre, mais! je crois que je suis un peu plus insousciante sur les vicissitudes de cette miserable vie. Dites moy le que vous faites de vos amis [...]" (5 Complémentaire [22 September]). - Wondering whether she attended a feast given by Napoleon: "Avez vous été témoin [...] de la belle fêtte des honneurs que le brave, le sensible, le spirituel Bouonaparté a fait rendre au temple de Mars en le Grand Turenne: l'on dit que cela estoit superbe [...]" (28 Vendémiaire [20 October]). - Very well preserved.
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Berlioz, Hector, French composer (1803-1869).
Autograph musical quotation signed ("H. Berlioz"). No place, [1845/1846].
Oblong folio (340 x 246 mm). 3 staves and autograph title in brown ink on thick paper mounted on cardboard. Beautiful musical quotation that points to an early stage of the composition of "La Damnation de Faust", given that Berlioz renamed the "Introduction Pastorale" as "Le vieil hiver fait place au printemps" ahead of the premiere in 1846. The quotation of the andante in D major comprises 8 bars of the viola score, 7 bars of the clarinet and flute score, and 4 bars of the second violin score. - According to his "Mémoires", Berlioz composed the introduction on his way to Vienna "at an inn in Passau on the Bavarian border" (chapter 54), a journey that can be dated to late 1845. Deeply disappointed by the poor reception of his 'Faust' upon its premiere at the Opéra-Comique on 6 Dec. 1846, Berlioz writes in the same chapter: "Nothing in my artistic career has hurt me more deeply than this unexpected indifference". Berlioz did not live to see the enduring success of his innovative work after its rediscovery and popularization by the conductor Édouard Colonne in the last quarter of the century. - With collector's note in ink. Some foxing and browning; a few tears have been restored by mounting the paper on cardboard. H. Berlioz, Mémoires (Paris 1870). Cf. J. Rushton, The Genesis of Berlioz's 'La Damnation de Faust' (Music & Letters , April 1975, vol. 56, no. 2).
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