Pierre Louys
Schriftsteller, 1870-1925
Der französische Lyriker und Romanschriftsteller gilt neben de Sade, Verlaine und Mirabeau als Meister der erotischen Literatur. Seine Gedichte wurden u. a. von Claude Debussy, Wilhelm Kienzl und Joseph Marx vertont; Stoffe seiner Werke waren Grundlage für Filme von Joseph von Sternberg und Luis Bunuel. Pierre Louÿs besaß eine ca. 20.000 Bände umfassende Bibliothek, mit einem umfangreichen Bestand klassischer antiker Autoren, darunter eine Reihe von Unikaten. Frucht seines lebenslangen Interesses an der Antike sind Übersetzungen griechischer Dichter ins Französische.
Quelle: Wikipedia
French poet and novelist (1870-1925). Autograph letter signed. [Paris]. 8vo. 2 pp.
180 €
(88593/BN58486)
To his friend, the poet and socialist politician André Lebey, with somewhat cryptic remarks on a letter that was originally enclosed in copy, and expressing the wish to meet Lebey in person as soon as Louÿs's health would permit it: "Confidence. Veux-tu lire la lettre que je copie pour toi, et garder cette feuille dans tes papiers ? Impossible de t'expliquer ce qu'elle signifie. Je crois tout de même que le ton ne the déplaira pas. Pour d'autres questions (et bien que celle-ci soit assez grave je peux dire : paula maiora) je voudrais te voir aussi tôt que possible.
La difficulté est que je suis malade : pas sorti depuis un mois. Cela ne m'est pas encore arrivé à Paris. Heures de sommeil de plus en plus tardives. Alors [...]". - In a short postscript, Louÿs asks Lebey for absolute discretion concerning the letter, adding a quote from José-Maria de Heredia's 1896 poem Salut à l’Empereur: "Pas un mot à personne, sur la lettre ci-jointe. Non pour moi. Je m'en fous. 'Le poète seul peut tutoyer les roys' : Mais ce n'est pas à mon propos que je mets cet homme à la porte". - Louÿs had an affair with José-Maria de Heredia's daughter Marie, the wife of Henri de Régnier, and later married her younger sister Louise in 1899. - On mourning paper. With several tears, slightly affecting the text..
French poet and novelist (1870-1925). Autograph letter monogramed. No place. 8vo. 4 pp. on bifolium. In French.
180 €
(90174/BN59625)
Intriguing letter to an unnamed recipient, offering an assessment of the Allied Powers' submarine fleets as opposed to those of the Axis Powers and their importance for maritime warfare in World War I. Louÿs first quotes a list from Raoul Testu de Balincourt's famous almanac "Flottes de combat", dated 1 June 1914, and explains why the Ottoman and Austrian fleets may be ignored. According to his assessment, the German fleet lacked "dreadnoughts to protect their ensign" and thus, at this point, "no German nor Austrian vessel can navigate (steam, sail, or armoured) any sea on the globe", while "all commercial ships of the Allies freely navigate throughout the entire world", only running "some risk along the English coasts, in the Adriatic sea, and especially in the Baltic".
In this situation, the combined 218 submarines of the Allies were, according to Louÿs, "practically useless", and they "could have stopped building them, as fear of the Allied dreadnoughts alone sufficed to chase the enemy's standard from all oceans", while the submarines found no German ships left "to torpedo". - The letter must have been written after Italy joined the Allies in April 1915 and before the United States entered the war two years later. The Allied naval blockade of Germany was indeed successful at restricting the German Navy to the German Bight. However, the German submarine fleet inflicted significant damage on the British merchant fleet before the establishment of the convoy system in the second half of 1917. - Well preserved..
French poet and novelist (1870-1925). 1 autograph letter signed and 1 autograph letter monogrammed. Tamaris [La Seyne-sur-Mer]. 8vo. Together 5 pp. on bifolia. With autograph envelopes.
950 €
(91573/BN60894)
To his brother Georges Louis, commenting on political articles in Le Temps and Le Gaulois and mentioning a favour to a friend who was seeking employment in French West Africa. The letter from 12 September: "Tout en approuvant le fond des deux articles du Temps sur la note allemande, je ne pense pas que tu en approuves la forme; je crois comprendre qu’on avait soufflé à [André] Tardieu : ‘La note a voulu être plus aimable qu’elle ne l’est. Mettez en valeur ce qu’elle a de mieux. Ne faites pas de susceptibilités.’ Mais il a exagéré les salutations.
Il reproche à ses confrères d’être nerveux, il est plus nerveux que personne [...]. C’est très habile avoir fait dire par El Guebbas [M'hammed El Guebbas, grand vizier of Morocco] lui-même que la police mixte était impossible. Quand profitera-t-on de la situation nouvelle ? [...]". - Well preserved..
French poet and novelist (1870-1925). 3 autograph letters signed and 1 autograph lettercard signed. Dizy (Marne). Small-8vo. Altogether 11 pp. In French.
950 €
(91584/BN60905)
Beautiful letters by the barely seventeen-year-old Pierre to his much older half-brother and housemate in Paris, the diplomat Georges Louis (1847-1917), written from his Christmas holiday at the family home in Dizy (Marne). A particularly charming lettercard starts the correspondence: Pierre reports that there has been nothing new since breakfast as he is still on the train, but at least he can attest to a "very good trip". He apologizes to his brother for the "incoherence" of his ideas and his "scrawl", due to the movement of the train and the hustle and bustle in the car: "Everyone talks, smokes and spits.
It's disgusting, it's as if we were in Germany". - The following days were marked by anxiety about the health of their father Pierre Philippe Louis, who was in pain and awaiting surgery, and altogether different social worries about a ball: "Ce bal me fait peur. Je prévois une gaffe énorme ou quelque chose d'analogue. Je voudrais joliment être souffrant ce soir" (28 Dec.). But while their father's dire condition remained more or less unchanged, the ball proved a success, Pierre proudly reporting: "The ball went very well, I had a lot of fun and didn't make any blunders. I danced all the polkas, all the quadrilles and all the lancers. I didn't stop waltzing during the whole cotillion. I was even chosen four times by young girls during the figure-dancing contests. I was the only one without a costume, but as I was by far the youngest, I don't think my pants were at all ridiculous […]" (29 Dec.). - The final night covered in the correspondence was shorter: a dinner with conversations about medicine, with Pierre and his former companions at the ball, relatives named Thérèse and Jacques, still tired from their night out. Nevertheless, the three stayed a bit longer at the "small salon", exchanging "nonsense". The following day, Jacques left early for Paris, so early that Pierre ridiculed him: "That imbecile Jacques, in front of whom you'll be reading my letter this evening, had felt the need to be awakened at half past five in order to leave before dawn, when there was nothing pressing calling him to Paris at such an early hour, and after a night at the ball". Thérèse, on the other hand, was sick with the flu, which Pierre attributes to two hours of ice skating, but they nevertheless planned to play violin duets the following day. In closing, Pierre confesses his crime of avoiding homework and vows to mend his ways: "Nothing to add, except that I'm lazy; well, tonight I'm starting my paper on Hugues de Lionne.".
French poet and novelist (1870-1925). Autograph letter. N. p. 8vo. 2½ pp. on bifolium.
650 €
(91601/BN60922)
Personal letter to his half-brother Georges Louis, announcing his return from a longer visit to their sister Lucie, relating news from the family and friends, and expressing his hope to see Georges at lunch: "Je reviens toujours demain matin, mon cher Georges. J'espère te voir à déjeuner parce que je serai peut-être obligé de sortir le soir. Tout le monde va bien ici et on est très affectueux pour ton frère. J'ai trouvé les enfants bien grandis. Jacques m'a envoyé ici une lettre très étrange, mystique et jeannesque au possible.
L'influence conjugale est encore mal digérée; mais d'une force ! Ma tante M. elle-même n'a pas eu plus de puissance sur son mari. Je te ferai lire cette prose. C'est bien curieux. 'Tu embrasseras Georges pour moi', me crie Lucie par la porte. Et pour moi aussi !". - On mourning paper..
French poet and novelist (1870-1925). 1 autograph letter signed and 1 autograph letter monogrammed. N. p. 8vo and 12mo. Together 2¾ pp.
240 €
(91660/BN60981)
Interesting letters to an intimate friend and collaborator, concerning Pierre Louÿs's financial problems during the last two decades of his life. In the dated (and probably earlier) letter, Louÿs mentions that an unspecified list, maybe of debtors, has not yet been published in Le Temps, and asks his friend to intercede with the ministry on his behalf. Furthermore, he announces that he will start negotiations with his publisher Joseph-Arthème Fayard concerning the repurchase of rights to "past and future books" from Éditions Fasquelle: "Je viens de lire le Temps...
Tu vois que j'avais bien deviné. Si la liste officielle ne paraît pas ce matin, tu pourrais peut-être faire une démarche, mais alors directement. On accorde ces choses là aux gens que cela intéresse, et non aux intermédiaires. On se rend bien compte que P. s'en fiche, et fait la commission pour dire qu'il l'a faite. Veux-tu aller aujourd'hui au ministère ? Je te demande pardon d'insister, mais voilà des années que tu t'occupes de cela et je crois que tu aurais eu bien moins de peine si les démarches avaient été groupées en une seule fois. Deux personnes disant chacune un mot à chaque semestre n'obtiendront rien, ni cette année ni dans dix ans. C'est mercredi prochain que je commence avec Fayard mes pourparlers pour le rachat de tous mes livres passés et futurs chez Fasquelle. Je l'assure que le ruban, et les articles de presse qui le suivent toujours auraient joliment influé sur les termes d'un accord qui aura tant de conséquences pour moi. Cela tombait à pic. Mais cela ne tombera pas". Louÿs published both with Fayard and Fasquelle. - The second letter strikes a more sombre tone, apparently as a final deadline or a hope concerning his finances was about to lapse. Louÿs is now convinced that he will have to sell off his future in order to save his present through an irreversible "Faustian pact" either with a moneylender, alluding to the classic Balzacian figure Gobseck of the like-named 1830 novella, or with a publisher: "On m'a donné avant-hier un dernier espoir. J'aurai la réponse, c'est à dire la déception, le jour de Noël. Après cela, du 26 au 28 décembre il faudra que je me livre entièrement en quarante-huit heures, soit à un Isaac Gobseck-Lévy, soit à un éditeur mais alors pour toujours ; la somme est trop importante pour un traité ordinaire. Depuis six semaines je me demande 'comment je vais être mangé'. Je n'ai que l'embarras du choix. Seulement, à partir de la semaine prochaine, je ne pourrai plus me réconforter à force d'optimisme, en me disant que, 'plus tard, cela ira mieux'. Ce sera précisément l'avenir que j'aurai vendu pour le présent, par un traité à la Faust". - The dated letter with an insigificant stain..