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an old handwritten letter from a man with a pen in his handseveral old letters and envelopes with a drawing of a man on themseveral handwritten letters are on a piece of paper with a red markerseveral old handwritten letters are displayed on a piece of paperan open book sitting on top of a table next to a blue table clothan open book with writing on it sitting on top of a table
ROUILLAC

6 - Elémir Bourges (1852–1925), Symbolist and Decadent writer, m…
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Estimate €50 - €100
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Description
Elémir Bourges (1852–1925), Symbolist and Decadent writer, member of the Académie Goncourt 3 letters, 1910–1911, addressed to René Benjamin ‘Dear Mr Benjamin, you were very kind to write to me, and I cannot tell you how much your letter touched me and pleased me. Such expressions of spontaneous sympathy are so rare! The crowds flock to a few great names, as if into the entrance halls of a railway station. The tiny chapels are scarcely visited. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and shake your hand most warmly” Press cuttings Handwritten notes on loose sheets, in-8 and in-12, by René Benjamin “Elémir Bourges, a gentleman, the opposite of Renard; his pessimism was that of Flaubert, but his laughter was all his own. So too was his modesty (his silence regarding the dead) and his tender friendship.” “He was deeply saddened by what had happened to Philippe. He shook Daudet’s hand, and, placing his index finger to his lips, said to him: ‘Hush!’ Faced with pain too great to bear, he chose silence, just as he had done for his daughter. On his deathbed, he left Daudet a small Czech vase.” “He’s fed up with war: we’ve manufactured every conceivable kind of gun; we’ve piled up in vases and cauldrons all the follies invented by the Denys Papins, Berthelot and others, and now the poor wretches who see their heads flying off on the battlefields look surprised that all this hocus-pocus accumulated by Berthelot or the like serves any purpose other than making people sneeze.” ‘It was at Bourges’s, whilst making him laugh (it is a very curious contrast), that I was struck for the first time at the age of 25. I do mean struck, in the full sense of the word, by the Michelangelos he had reproduced above him’ Elémir Bourges The Twilight of the Gods Paris: Stock, 1901 2nd edition 19 x 12.5 cm, half-chagrin binding with corner pieces, spine with five raised bands, gilt lettering, gilt head, signed ‘Moens, bookbinder in Paris’ Autographed dedication in verse, signed and dated 8 October 1920
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About the sale René Benjamin, the 20th-century Balzac scholar
Auction location
Auction time 10/06/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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