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Paul Valery

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Paul Valery

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Auction Date:2018 Dec 05 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Desirable set of four ALSs in French, three signed “Paul Valery” and one signed “PV,” nine total pages, dated between 1923 and 1943. The first, from March 12, 1923, in part (translated): “You complain of my silence, and yet you send me these articles from the Liege Universitaire in which you speak so kindly of me. But I thought I had written you before leaving for Brussels. I was hoping to see you there. They overdid it over there, and almost assassinated me with friendship. I’m sorry that you didn’t appear among the assassins. I came back half-dead, and found myself in front of a desk, which struck terror into my heart. I am so burdened down with things to do, and especially with an amount of correspondence, which is becoming unbearable.”

Another, circa 1925, addressed to the artist Dunoyer de Segonzac, in full: “My sister-in-law Paule Gobillard is submitting to the jury for the Pittsburgh exhibition a canvas that she calls ‘Causerie.’ I allow myself to recommend both canvas and sister-in-law: You would give us great pleasure in your capacity as juror you could give the picture a little push towards America.”

A cryptic letter to a friend named Héléne, dated “XVI,” in part: “You obviously know what happened in Geneva! Until now I knew only the bare outlines: the nomination of B., the apotheosis of L., and the silence about your humble servant. Ultimately I wrote to our friend Op., who answered me today. It seems clear that P.P.P. handled the entire affair. I confess to you that I feel somewhat as if I've been tricked. I'm waiting for a little more information before I draw the appropriate conclusions. Do you have more precise information? Maybe more information could be obtained from Tit…I'm still in Paris, still plagued by my thankless task and a thousand other problems. The weather is continually stormy, which makes me a nervous wreck. It’s dreadful to have to work without the slightest desire, when it's the mind that has to produce. Who will write the Martyrology of the Brain?”

The last letter, circa June 1943, addressed to “an undisciplined young lady,” in which Valery discusses his feelings regarding Emile Rideau’s Introduction to the Thoughts of Paul Valery, published in Paris in 1944. In part: “Here you are returning from I know not what distances of the spirit to the old man of letters, abandoned without phrases and without other compliments! What punishment do you deserve? I will leave the choice of chastisement up to you. Meanwhile, you allege that you have been working, writing poetic tales and sweating over your V[alery] as time permitted. I have the honor to let people toil. Some time ago, a worthy Jesuit, a professor of philosophy, sent me a large package devoted to said Me and which is one of the most complete studies of this difficult work. Its conclusion is curious enough. It exalts me for five pages and casts me down for five others. These are two so neatly defined pourings, first one way and then the other that one could suppress the one or the other at will. Needless to say he couldn’t help condemning that which is damnable in my case. I enjoyed this differential system very much. As to the rest, the analysis of the texts is very exact.” In overall fine condition, with short fold splits to the largest of the letters.