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Librairie Le Feu Follet - Paris - +33 (0)1 56 08 08 85 - Contact us - 31 Rue Henri Barbusse, 75005 Paris

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Lettre autographe signée à propos de l'acquisition d'autographes

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4 000 €

Réf : 87316

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Marcel PROUST

Lettre autographe signée à propos de l'acquisition d'autographes

(Paris), 102 boulevard Haussmann, s.d. (1906-1919), 13,5x18,2cm, 2 pages sur un bifeuillet.

| Proust and autographs |

Autograph letter signed by Marcel Proust, two pages written in black on two leaves of watermarked “Imperial diadem” paper, with his autograph address "102 boulevard Haussmann". The two leaves are detached along the fold, a usual trace of horizontal fold, adhesive trace on the back.
Not included in his correspondence edited by Philip Kolb.
Interesting letter of thanks by Marcel Proust, after receiving autographs from his correspondent's grandfather.

"Sir,
You were very kind to have our friend Mr. [Constantin] Ullmann send these autographs of your grandfather. I would thank you at greater length if I were not extremely unwell tonight. I am enclosing with this note the one hundred francs that I owe you and that you would be so kind as to acknowledge receipt (...)"

[Monsieur,
Vous avez été mille fois bon de faire remettre par notre ami M. [Constantin] Ullmann ces autographes de Monsieur votre grand-père. Je vous remercierais plus longuement si je n'étais ce soir extrêmement souffrant. Je joins à ce petit mot cent francs que je vous dois et que vous seriez bien gentil de m'accuser réception (...)]

We do not know which illustrious writer's autographs Proust collected here - without claiming to be a collector, the writer regarded manuscripts as important pieces of literary history. A fierce opponent of Sainte-Beuve's method, he adamantly refused to disclose his own manuscripts. It was an eminently paradoxical attitude, as his fondness for other writers' correspondence is well known: in one of his notebooks, for example, he considered Musset's letters “as the backstage of his work”, and read attentively the correspondence of Flaubert, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Carlyle, Ruskin and Dostoevsky. He also purchased a number of autographs from the famous Parisian dealer Charavay for Reynaldo Hahn, and made requests to purchase manuscripts by Verlaine, Mozart and Voltaire. As indicated in the letter, Constantin Ullmann, a mutual friend of Proust and Hahn, is said to have given the writer the autographs of the famous “grandfather”, whose identity remains unknown.

A precious letter shedding further light on the great writer's personal collection.