Beschreibung:

PROUST, Marcel. Two autograph letters signed to Lucien Daudet, both n.p. [Paris] , the first n.d. [April 1918] , reporting that he has carried out his commission with Mlle. Gross, 'elle avait justement ce soir là de la musique et Jean [Cocteau] etc'; reporting that his brother has returned, 'Mon frère est "tombé chez moi" comme eut dit Goncourt, pendant que je le croyais à Padoue', and [in an unpublished passage] referring rather disapprovingly to Lucien's wish [to work with Robert Proust], 'Il a été très flatté et pas seulement honoré mais content de ton idée. Il se demande seulement s'il a le droit (!) d'avoir un secrétaire', referring to his preface to Blanche's book, 'Je ne peux pas te dire tous les cataclysmes que déchaine d'avance la préface que je me suis si bêtement laissé entrainer à faire pour le livre d'ailleurs ravissant de Blanche sur Manet, sur Fantin etc', continuing about Blanche's injustice towards Léon Daudet and considering who to do about this; mentioning his health and that he does not dare see Babinski although he can hardly pronounce the words when he speaks, referring to the continual flow of his proofs and ending with a joke about candidates for the Academy, with a postscript giving Mlle. Gross's address, referring to the Princess Soutzo and to his correspondent's Saturday reunions, 'tes Samedis qui seront nullement Verdurin mais très Laumes et Guermantes', 8 pages, 8vo (including approximately 40 unpublished lines); the second, n.d. [April 1918] , explaining that he has not written because he expected to come on Saturday or to see his correspondent at Mlle. Gross's where he has been tonight; enquiring what he should write to his brother about Lucien's wish, complaining of his brother's refusal to write letters, but he has written from Italy, 'et même une lettre, sans avoir rien à demander; j'étais stupéfait'; subscribing himself 'Tendrement à toi, mon rat Marcel', 4 pages, 8vo (ink smudges on the final page), ( together 12 pages, 8vo ). Lucien Daudet had been transferred back to Paris in January 1918, when his name was removed from the reserve list, and in Madame Daudet's absence was planning Saturday reunions of his friends. Proust met Valentine Gross (later Madame Jean Hugo at Cabourg in 1912, and she was the inspiration for Jean Cocteau's burlesque ballet, Parade . Dr. Joseph Babinski was the neurologist whom Proust consulted about the facial paralysis he feared, and who reassured him. He had accepted an invitation from Jacques Émile Blanche to contribute a preface to Blanche's Propos de Peintre , a collection of essays which had appeared individually some years before. They had innumerable arguments about the preface, partly caused by Proust's meddlesome editing of Blanche's text, and the work was only published in 1921. In his preface to the first volume Proust made unflattering remarks about Blanche. Blanche riposted in the preface which he himself wrote to the second volume. For publication of the letters Lucien Daudet suppressed part of a sentence referring to a letter Proust has sent to his brother, all the references to his possible employment with, and the criticisms of Robert Proust, names, remarks about Blanche's attitude to Léon Daudet and the reference to Proust's illness. Kolb, XVII, 190 and 192; Cahiers , V (LVIII and LIX). (2)