ZOLA (Émile) (1840-1902) Lot n° 199

L.A.S. au directeur de l'assistance publique, Paris 4 February 1860,1p. in-4°: Moving youth letter: Zola requests from the director of public assistance a place as a visitor in his administration. He recalls that "his father, a civil engineer... author and concessionaire of the Zola canal in Aix en Provence, died at the moment when his project, turning into a grandiose reality, provided this city with clean and abundant water. This work, for which he had sacrificed his fortune and his life, unfortunately passed, after his death, into the hands of a disloyal associate. My mother, thus stripped of all her possessions, made the greatest sacrifices for my education... It is therefore... by relying on the services rendered by my father and on the misfortunes that struck us, that I come to ask... "...this place. "I have recently graduated from St . Louis Imperial High School and can provide... ...evidence of my conduct and success.... ».