"...j'en ai plusieurs que je veux réserver pour l'épreuve d'une lecture sévère, avant de les livrer à la publicité"

Autograph letter signed by Francis Viélé-Griffin (23 lines in violet ink from his property in Nazelles in Indre-et-Loire) addressed to Edouard Ducoté, poet, bibliophile and editor of the review l'Ermitage since 1895.
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A perfectionist, Francis Viélé-Griffin postpones sending a poem he had promised to the review l'Ermitage, not yet judging it completely accomplished: "... ce scrupule est seul cause de mon retard et vous me le pardonnerez aisément..." ["this scruple alone causes my delay and you will easily forgive me..."]
He finds the quality of the previous issue of the review excellent and particularly praises the verses of his colleague Stuart Merrill: "... les vers de Merrill sont délicieux, n'est-ce pas ? " ["Merrill's verses are delightful, aren't they?"] and congratulates Edouard Ducoté.
Intimate of Stéphane Mallarmé, friend of André Gide, Paul Valéry, Francis Jammes, Emile Verhaeren, Francis Viélé-Griffin is an American symbolist poet writing in French. He becomes, with Gustave Kahn, one of the principal theorists of free verse.