Honoré de Balzac, Autograph letter. October 17... Lot 182

Honoré de Balzac, Autograph letter. [October 17 or 24, 1841], 3p in-8. To Hippolyte Souverain (1803-1880): "[...] it is impossible for me to give printing orders on sheets in a printing house where, after a year, people still don't know that they are composing letters [...] I don't accept the nonsense you have been told, because there is nothing difficult in what they have and had to do. It therefore depends entirely on them and on you to send me all the sheets up to the new composition by Monday at the latest. [...]You will find attached to the proofs the corrected preface of Catherine de Médicis explained, and as it is in St-Augustin, it can be done simultaneously." Souverain was undoubtedly Balzac's most important and loyal publisher. His relationship with Balzac began as early as 1836 with the edition of Horace de Saint-Aubin's OEuvres complètes. From 1839 until Balzac's death, he published many of the novelist's unpublished works, maintaining excellent relations with him and taking on numerous commissions during the author's stays in the Ukraine. This interesting letter concerns the composition of Volume II of Mémoires de deux jeunes mariées and the correction of the preface to Le Martyr calviniste; it reveals with interest Balzac's work habits, as well as his valuable knowledge of the publishing and printing world, of which he was a key player from 1825 to 1828. (Correspondance, II, n°41-110).