SULLY PRUDHOMME, René Armand François PRUDHOMME... Lot 34

SULLY PRUDHOMME, René Armand François PRUDHOMME dit (1839-1907), French poet, first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901. 3 autographed letters, one from Ollans in Franche-Comté. [1st letter] Paris, March 28, 1878, to a friend. 4 pp. in-8°. Interesting letter concerning the difficulties of publishing the philosophical poem La Justice with the author's worries about its reception, and giving the touching portrait that the poet draws of Louise Labelonye, one of his muses. Sully Prudhomme is prevented from going to the country to rest at his servant Hortense's, and gives the reasons: he wishes to meet his friend in Paris around Easter. "You bring me what I never find here, a tempered philosophy and a fine and tender literary taste, that recharges and rests me. Extremes in all things tire me and make me distrustful, and everyone in Paris, artists, writers, and the public, bear with it without measure." He then mentions a typographers' strike which "suspended the printing of my poem ["La Justice"], it was almost in a condition to appear; I think it will be able to be put on sale on April 10" and he will have to be present for the mailings. On the 19th and 20th he terminates the lease of one of his tenants, with whom he is having difficulties. So he will spend the month of April in Paris, unless he goes for a walk in Brie, but the weather is so changeable that he hardly thinks about it. He comes back to his poem: "I am worried about the fate of my poem, I am afraid that there is not enough imagery and movement in it. The subject is too unfamiliar to the usual patrons of the muse. At last, with the grace of God!" [Sully had put much philosophical ambition into it]. He then praises the merits of Madame Labelonye, and is delighted that his friend is corresponding with her: "she has a free spirit, open to everything, and sometimes very daring; prejudice has not overcome her; all that is good in her (and that is a lot) comes from her heart and the rectitude of her mind; she owes to education only the outward savoir-vivre; she knows how to live inside with a rare originality. I love her with all my heart, and you will do the same, if not done." Madame Louise Labelonye is the widow of pharmacist and Member of Parliament Jean-Pierre Labelonye, inventor of the syrup bearing his name. Sensitive to her charms, Sully dedicated several poems to her, including Le tourment divin, published in the collection Poésies 1878-1888. [3rd letter] Ollans, May 8, 1896, to a fellow translator who had asked him for a preface. 4 pp. in-8° bi-leaf on squared paper. Beautiful and long letter addressed from the castle of Ollans where the poet used to come regularly on holiday. He evokes the haste with which he composed his poem for the inauguration of the Social Museum in Paris, and his literary scruples concerning the writing of a preface. He received his letter "in Franche-Comté, where I have been staying for a month with friends for the wedding of one of their daughters as a witness. I go there about every year to spend a month". He returns to Paris in three days. He is very embarrassed because he has not received any news from Gaston de Raimes who was supposed to send him the manuscript of his correspondent. He therefore only knows about his work through the articles that the latter has sent him. "Besides, your letter arrived just as I was composing a poem of 70 lines for the inauguration of the Social Museum in Paris; this solemnity took place last Sunday, I was very late." He has therefore kept to generalities in the preface which his correspondent asks of him, and does not wish to give it to the printer until he has read it and communicated to him the corrections "without the slightest scruple since I have not been able to form a complete idea of your translation." He then invites him to return the preface if he is satisfied with it. "I will copy it on the paper of the size you will indicate to me; I am at a loss here and, moreover, I will only copy it after your approval. He still complains of not having received anything from Raimes. "You would have done wisely to send me the proofs as the work was printed, I would not have been caught unawares. There are very few Parisians, especially among busy writers, who can supply a work as soon as he wants it [sic, grammatical error due to a palimpsest]. Our life is so complicated!" Former collection of Mr. Eric Duprey, of Chatenay. Small paper loss in the corner without affecting the text. [2nd letter] Chatenay, Sunday [July 26, 1896], to a lady [Madame Léopold ALBERTI]. 5 pp. in-12. He reports on the approach he made to the President of the Republic Félix Faure in favour of Madame Louise Boissonnet, widow of his friend and academic colleague.