VERLAINE (Paul). Autograph letter signed [to the publisher A - Lot 121

Lot n° 121
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VERLAINE (Paul). Autograph letter signed [to the publisher A - Lot 121
VERLAINE (Paul). Autograph letter signed [to the publisher Albert Savine]. Paris, November 22, 1889. 1 p. 3/4 in-folio on a sheet of printed form of the Administration de l'Assistan - ce publique in Paris, some underlining in red pencil, pale wetness in the upper margin. LONG ADJUSTMENT FOR THE EDITION OF HAPPINESS AND STORIES LIKE THAT. Paul Verlaine had entered into a relationship with Albert Savine in the hope of signing better contracts with him than with Léon Vanier, and had undertaken to entrust him with the publication of several volumes, including the poetic collection Bonheur and the collection of short stories Histoires comme ça. They fell out, however, and their collaboration was abandoned: Bonheur was finally published by Léon Vanier, and Histoires comme ça appeared with his successor, Albert Messein, in the first volume of the poet's Œuvres posthumes. "I HAVE BEEN TOLD OF YOU, SIR, AND I WOULD LIKE TO CALL THEM FANTASTIC. Although they concern me and would be very unpleasant to me if they had the slightest basis of verisimilitude, I retain only one of them, attributing to me the authorship of a letter addressed to you during your stay in Sainte-Pélagie, a letter "in which I told you" THAT I WAS ONLY FOR A VERY SMALL PERIOD THE AUTHOR OF STORIES LIKE THAT. I OPPOSE THIS ASSERTION WITH THE MOST FORMAL DENIAL. Either your memory deceives you or you are the dupe of a dirty mystification. I would even be happy, and have the right in a way to demand, as long as you speak of me in this way, that you show me this forgery, if it exists. MY LITERARY HONOUR, TO WHICH I ATTEND AS MUCH AS TO MY HONOUR AS A MAN, MAKES IT MY LAW TO REPRESS, TO PUNISH, IF POSSIBLE, SUCH INFAMIES, and I think you should help me in this. But to the business at hand! I answer your special objections. I have indeed written to you often, asking you for accounts which you have never given me back, and which I still demand today, very urgently. Accounts of money, and of manuscripts. This is the last time I am writing to you on this subject, hoping that you will finally give me the satisfaction to which I am entitled. Counting on it absolutely. YOU HAVE MY COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT OF PROSE [STORIES LIKE THIS]. I am sure of it. If there is anything missing, it is either you or someone at home who has misplaced it in one of your journeys, but unfortunately I can tell you that you have only ever entrusted me with a short story which was returned to you long ago. Look hard and you will find it. I HAVE 900 VERSES OF HAPPINESS, OF WHICH YOU HAVE MORE THAN THREE QUARTERS. I will work on it until the end of the year and we can publish it in January. But there is nothing to prevent you from starting the publication of the prose volume after the final classification. All these delays are to my detriment and I cannot conceive why they exist after your promises before witnesses. I would only like to receive one or two short stories and prose poems for publication in the newspapers. Against receipt, and for one or two days. I hold to it.... »
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