BAUDELAIRE Charles Paris, 1821 - id., 1867, écrivain... Lot n° 305

Autograph letter, signed "Ch. Baudelaire", [to Eugène Pelletan at Le Siècle newspaper]. Friday, March 17, 1854; 1 page 1/2 in-8°, stamped address. "I've never seen you and never had the honor of chatting with you. I have been told that you have kindly mentioned my name in one of your recent articles (Revue de Paris) and this is the only reason that encourages me to address you. ...] For a long time, since 1847, I have been concerned with the glory of a man who was at once poet, scholar and metaphysician. He's all of those things, even though he's still a novelist. It was I who set Edgar Poe's reputation in Paris in motion. What is pleasing is that others, moved by my biographical and critical articles, and by my translations, have taken care of him, but nobody - except you - has deigned to mention my name. The world is paved with foolishness. Again these unfortunate fragments appeared only through obsessions. Sometimes - it's too weird, too eccentric, too terrible, too subtle; why not too beautiful? - The beautiful bookstore that exists in our good times obliging me to several mounts of the same bag, I thought of the Literary Museum of the Century, the second soap opera. - Mr. de Tramont, who has formally promised me his assistance, has eight samples in his hands. It goes without saying that to make the market easier, I will remove the purely philosophical or scientific pieces. ...] Your situation and your notoriety undoubtedly give great importance to your words. ...I would be very happy with this case, not to see the face and not to hear the voice of Mr. Desnoyers. I swear to you that if I have no animadversion against him; his hatred of the beautiful is innocent because it is unconscious, it is animal and instinctive; and if he was the best man on earth, he will always do evil, literally. The esteem that your work has given me for your character has advised me this letter, perhaps singular."