Lettre autographe signée envoyée depuis San Francisco adressée à Emile Mignard sur papier bois asiatique

Signed handwritten letter sent from San Francisco addressed to Emile Mignard on Asian wood paper
San Francisco Thursday 10 December 1902, 11.2 x 17 cm, 2 pages on one leaf
Handwritten signed letter from Victor Segalen addressed to Emile Mignard, two pages written in black ink on a leaf of Asian wood letter paper printed in the margin with blue Asian silhouettes and landscapes.
Emile Mignard (1878-1966), also a doctor and Brest-born, was one of Segalen's closest friends of youth whom he met at the Jesuit Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours School in Brest. The writer interacted with this comrade in an abundant and closely followed correspondence in which he described, with humour and intimacy, his daily life in all corners of the world. It was at Mignard's wedding, on 15 February 1905, that Segalen met his wife, Yvonne Hébert.
Segalen, who left Le Havre on 11 October 1902 for Tahiti, had his journey interrupted by contracting typhoid fever, which kept him in San Francisco for two months. This was the opportunity for the young man to discover China Town, the Asian quarter that he mentions in this letter: “Je t'ai déniché chez un petit singe à figure jaune du quartier japonais un petit porte-carte qui aura toujours, à défaut d'autre chose, l'intérêt de «venir de loin» et de son authenticité...et aussi peut-être celui d'être donné avec la plus profonde affection que je puisse dédier à un Ami.” “I have unearthed you in a little yellow-faced monkey in the Japanese quarter, a little card wallet that will always have, in the absence of anything else, the interest of “coming from afar” and its authenticity...and also perhaps that of being given with the deepest affection that I can dedicate to a Friend.” Segalen left San Francisco for Tahiti on 11 January 1903.
Handwritten letters from Victor Segalen are very rare.