GARY (Romain). Autograph letter signed "Romain" to André Mal - Lot 175

GARY (Romain). Autograph letter signed "Romain" to André Malraux. LaPaz (Bolivia), December 3 [1956]. One p. in-4 in pencil, printed letterhead of the French Embassy in LaPaz. "Dear André Malraux, I've put aside a whole collection of hopi for interested parties, but I'm in LaPaz, and the characters are in LosAngeles - I'm waiting for an opportunity. This morning, Monday, December 3, when I'm writing to you, I have stage fright... as if my great André Malraux were to receive the Nobel Prize and we weren't sure yet..." Letter written on the day his novel Lesracines du ciel was awarded the Prix Goncourt. On December 4, 1956, Romain Gary, who was French consul in Los Angeles but in charge of a short interim assignment at the French embassy in LaPaz, received the announcement of the decision taken on December 3 that he would be officially declared the winner of the Prix Goncourt on December 10. Les Racines du ciel had just been published in October by Gallimard. The name of André Malraux, mentioned since 1945 as eligible for the Nobel Prize, came up again and again for the 1957 vintage, but Albert Camus was to be preferred. The Hopi Indians, who live in north-eastern Arizona, used to make votive statuettes representing the spirits of their mythology, the katchina. Given to children to familiarize them with the tribe's beliefs, these dolls were particularly popular with the Surrealists.