Writers' autograph manuscripts, work drafts, handwritten notebooks, autograph poems, romantic manuscript fragments

Original autograph manuscript by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, one page in black ink on a yellow paper sheet, numerous corrections, and rewritings.

Exceptional working manuscript of a passage from the original French version of Wind Sand and Stars [Terre des Hommes] from chapter VI "Dans le désert", a magnificent ode to the barren wilderness of deserts doomed to disappear due to the inevitable development of the industrial age. This section from the original French novel was removed for the English version translated by Galantière and remains unpublished in English. Moreover, the final two paragraphs of the manuscript are unpublished in the original French version...

Autograph manuscript by Jean Cocteau, early version of the poetry collection Appogiatures - published in 1953 by Éditions du Rocher in Monaco - comprising 47 leaves of thick paper taken from a large drawing pad and 5 smaller leaves of thin paper, written in blue ink and blue ballpoint pen. Numerous deletions and corrections. The leaves are numbered up to 25 (including one number 8 bis) and most bear a small cross or the mythical Cocteau star. The last leaf, containing the poem titled "Lettre," is dated in the poet's hand August, 15, 1952. Also in Cocteau's hand, the first leaf bears the final title, above which is crossed out the initially...

Manuscript pages from ‘Conversations with Professor Y', n.p. [Meudon] n.d. [1954], various sizes (from 10x21 cm to 27x21 cm), 34 sheets.
Autograph manuscript by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 34 sheets of various sizes, written in blue and sometimes pink ballpoint pen. Some of the pages are numbered by Céline at top left. The last folio numbered 159 is signed by the writer at the bottom.
Two leaves contain previously unpublished passages: the first, a few lines long, refers to the Professeur. The second leaf numbered 136 features another full-page text on the verso which we did not find in the ‘Professeur Y' or in any of the published works of Céline...

Two unpublished autograph manuscripts signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline in blue and red ballpoint pen: the first contains 9 pages numbered in the left-hand corner from 1480 to 1488; the second contains 7 pages numbered from 1498 to 1504. Each text is signed by Céline in red ink at the bottom margin, with the words "Meudon 54" also in his hand (ff. 1485 and 1505). There are numerous variants, lines and words crossed out, modified and repeated.
Traces of pinholes in the upper left-hand margin of every sheet, as Céline organized his manuscripts in "bundles".
Normance was published in 1954 as a sequel to 'Fable for Another Time' published two years earlier. Both parts were written during...

Autograph letter signed to Madame Catusse, 12,6x20,4cm, 3 pages on a double leaf.

Autograph letter signed by Marcel Proust, probably addressed to Madame Catusse. The recipient and date have been determined by Proust scholar Jean-Yves Tadié. Three pages in black ink on a double leaf edged in black. A fold inherent to the mailing.
A sombre and admirable letter steeped in Proustian melancholy. The future author of In Search of Lost Time feels more than ever the loss of his mother during the New Year period. The famously generous Proust also asks his faithful confidante Madame Catusse to buy a gift for the Straus couple, whose wife inspired...

"My dear director, under the terms of our agreements, I am ready to read, I have chosen tomorrow, Wednesday, and I have told your stage manager the names of the actors to whom I entrust our play. I've done a bit of your job, I've conquered Madame Dorval who will make you rich, I'll bring her myself. Find here, my dear d'Épagny, a thousand regards, I have given you proof of our old...

Autograph poem signed by symbolist poet Adolphe Retté in alexandrine quatrains entitled "Nocturne au parc".
Crease marks inherent to postal folding.
The poem, 34 lines in black ink on two leaves and dedicated to Octave Uzanne, will appear in the collection entitled "L'archipel en fleurs" published in 1895 by "La bibliothèque artistique et littéraire":
"Nocturne au parc
A Octave Uzanne
Le parc, que le printemps vêt de feuilles nouvelles,
S'ensommeille aux chansons qui passent dans la brise
Et des roses en fleurs, pareilles à des belles,
Parfument les massifs dont la lune est éprise.
L'Avril tiède languit sous les...

Autograph poem signed by Swiss poet Charles Fuster in alexandrine quatrains and tercets entitled "Au temps de Jeanne".
Crease marks inherent to postal folding.
The poem, 15 lines in black ink on one leaf, will appear in the Swiss French-language review "Le semeur" of June 25, 1889, of which Charles Fuster was editor-in-chief:
"Au temps de Jeanne
Quand la bonne Lorraine, en son pays de France,
Rythmait sa rêverie au bas des destriers,
Quand elle s'en allait aux combats meurtriers,
Vierge de flêtrissure et ferme d'espérance,
Quand les rameaux moussus et de calme apparence
Regardaient passer Jeanne auprès de leurs foeyrs,
Plus d'une...

Poem in Alexandrine quatrain and tercet, autograph signed by Swiss poet Charles Fuster, entitled "Au temps de Jeanne".
At the top of the poem, pencil annotations by an editor from Mercure de France.
The poem, 15 lines in black ink on a sheet, would appear in the "Mercure de France" review of September 1890 with a variant in the first stanza (: "la grâce de son visage" becoming in the final state "la peau de son visage")
"Aquarelle
C'est d'un grain de satin la grâce de son visage
Bleue à croire qu'un bleu reflet de lune y joue
Et le nez qui nuement fait ombre sur la joue
La grâce en a modelé tous les cartilages !
Le cold-cream obligeant fixe...

Unpublished poem in Alexandrine quatrain, autograph signed by Gustave Téry, entitled "Silencieux".
Fold marks inherent to postal handling.
The poem, 14 lines in black ink on a sheet, is unpublished:
"Silencieux
Mes regards vous ont dit que je vous adorais.
Vous avez entendu leur prière muette,
[...]
Vous ne m'entretenez que de choses frivoles ;
Mais je lis, dans vos yeux, ce que vous me taisez.
Ne dites rien. Gardez vos lèvres aux baisers.
Et parlez à mon coeur la langue sans paroles.
[...]
Qu'il reste enseveli le secret de nos âmes !
Votre rêve est le mien. Ne parlez pas : j'entends.
G.T.."
Fold...

Autograph signed poem quatrain by poet Franc-Nohain entitled "Du pays tourangeau".
Fold marks inherent to postal handling.
The signed poem, 31 lines in black ink on one leaf, was included in the collection "Inattentions et sollicitudes" published in 1894 under the same title with some variants:
"Du pays tourangeau
Lai médiévite.
Du pays tourangeau
La belle châtelaine
Garnit de blanche laine
Son agile fuseau.
C'est Yette qu'on l'appelle,
Et Yette est la plus belle...
A tourné, pour se voir,
Les yeux vers son miroir :
Rajuste sa cornette,
Et se voit si proprette
Dedans ses, beaux atours,

Autograph signed alexandrine quatrain poem by the symbolist poet Adolphe Retté entitled "Les femmes au bord de la mer".
The poem, 19 lines in black ink on one leaf and dedicated to the painter Puvis de Chavannes, would appear in issue No.1 of January 1895 of the symbolist review 'L'ermitage' with some variants:
"Les femmes au bord de la mer
A Puvis de Chavannes
Calyste, Noémie et la triste Négère
Eprises des flots purs dont le chant les câline,
Sur le roc où languit une flore marine
Rêvent d'amour étrange et de grève étrangère.
Calyste est toute grave et pleure Noémie,
Ouit l'hymne fuyant de plaintives sirènes,
La brise les adule et soupire leurs...

Autograph letter signed by Victor Hugo to Léon Richer, two pages in black ink on a double sheet framed in black. Crosswise folds inherent to envelope inserting. A central tear at the junction of the two sheets. Published in Œuvres complètes de Victor Hugo (Ollendorff, 1905).
Manuscript housed in a blue half morocco chemise and slipcase, marbled paper boards, marbled paper slipcase, signed Boichot.

A magnificent and important letter to Léon Richer, one of the first male feminist activists, considered by Hubertine Auclert as the "father of feminism" and later regarded by Simone de Beauvoir as its "true founder". This deeply humanist text is a compendium of...

Autograph letter addressed to his friend Georges Raillard, 8 lines in black felt-tip pen.
Fold marks inherent to being placed in an envelope.
"4 matin,
cher Georges. Tapies en rouge. On me dit que pour juillet les jeux étaient faits par l'équipe précédente... (?) Espérons pour le 1er janvier 2003... Yves." ["4 morning,
dear Georges. Tapies in red. I'm told that for July the die was cast by the previous team... (?) Let's hope for January 1st, 2003... Yves."]

Autograph letter signed by René Clair, on Pinewood studios letterhead in Iver, England, addressed to Carlo Rim, 26 lines in black ink, regarding the birth of Carlo Rim's son for which René Clair does not seem certain of having already congratulated him  : "Avec honte, je découvre dans un dossier la carte par laquelle tu m'annonçais la naissance de ton fils. T'ai-je ou non envoyé des félicitations (dont la majeure partie s'adresse à Alice ?), je n'en sais rien. Au risque de me répéter, je t'écris "à nouveau" ave quelques mois de retard." ["With shame, I discover in a file the card by which you announced to me the birth of your son. Did I or did I not send congratulations...