"Je vous assure que je n'ai rien signé avant 1904. Et pour cause, M. Willy y voyait mille inconvénients..."

Autograph note signed by Colette addressed to her friend Jean-Joseph Renaud on her famous blue letter paper (9 lines in black ink) concerning her difficult beginnings in literature.
Crease mark inherent to postal delivery, envelope included.
Taking advantage of a question from her correspondent, Colette recalls the first works of her career, when her husband Willy, a great socialite who employed many talented ghostwriters such as Jean de Tinan, Curnonsky, Paul-Jean Toulet and Tristan Bernard to write his books, appropriated her productions: "From the midst of a slow storm of work I assure you that I signed nothing before 1904. And for good reason, M. Willy saw a thousand drawbacks to it...
Colette also praises the works of her friend Jean-Joseph Renaud: "I read you faithfully and with great pleasure. Quickly, your memoirs!"
Jean-Joseph Renaud was a fencer and writer who often published under the pen names Jean Carmant and Jean Cassard.
A brief but evocative letter in which Colette speaks of the struggle of women writers for recognition in the literary world monopolized by men.