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a handwritten letter from a man who wrote the poema close up of a piece of paper with writing on ittwo handwritten letters on a piece of paper with a bird on itseveral old french newspapers are stacked on top of each otherseveral old letters are lined up on top of each otherfour handwritten letters and a piece of paper with writing on them
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138 - Abel Bonnard (1883–1968), writer, poet, member of the Académ…
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Estimate €300 - €600
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Abel Bonnard (1883–1968), writer, poet, member of the Académie Française and minister under the Vichy regime Collection of correspondence, handwritten notes and press cuttings 15 autograph letters/postscript letters and 7 stamped envelopes, 1924–1948, addressed to René Benjamin, including: Letter from the author, Paris, 17 June 1926 My dear friend, It is with great emotion that I thank you for your article. What strikes me first of all, what I recognise in it as being you yourself, is your incomparable generosity, so closely intertwined with your intelligence. The spectacle is so magnificent that I delight in it, forgetting that I am benefiting from it. What clarity, and what ardour! What wings you give to common sense! How happy one is when one finds in one’s friends the finest qualities of humanity. You give me two joys, my dear Benjamin, champion of the great cause. One is that you exist as you are; the other is that, existing as you do, you are my friend. It gives me great pleasure to add gratitude to the admiration and affection I feel for you. L.A.S., Paris, 4 December 1926 Dear Friend, It is always I who wish to write to you, and it is always you who write to me. Yes, I had indeed promised myself to tell you how much I had enjoyed that last evening, when your keen sensitivity—which you usually restrain so strictly—was so vividly expressed. I also wanted to tell you, having reread your pieces on Joffre and Barrès, that you are a great portraitist, quick to grasp what is most personal in a man, whilst disregarding everything that is merely particular and incidental. Once again, I marvelled at the warmth of spirit that underpins the rigour of your talent. And now, just as I am about to tell you all this, I have received your letter about my *Rome*. So I find myself thinking: what a pleasure it would be if my books were to him, in some small way, what his are to me... 2 L.A.S., Madrid, 20 November 1948 My dear Benjamin, Your letter has been to me like a great light and a great fire. Its arrival took me by complete surprise, but the tribute to you that it conveys comes as no surprise to me. I am not in the least surprised to find your generosity of spirit once again. I knew that your eldest son had died valiantly in Lorraine; but what you add about the fate of your family breaks my heart. What consolation remains to us if there is not, elsewhere, amongst those we love most, a little of the happiness we no longer have? My mother died very shortly before my arrival here. My brother died last August, suddenly struck down by a devastating illness. I was about to write to you that I am now utterly alone, but I realise I have no right to speak in this way when I receive such a token of friendship as you have shown me. My dear Benjamin, whom I see from afar as ‘the Lonely Knight’, what a shame that I can do nothing for you, when I wish my affection could walk beside you like an archangel! I read a great deal, and any books I receive will give me great pleasure, especially if they are from you. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to correspond with you as you direct, provided that this causes you no inconvenience whatsoever. I send you my love, my dear Friend, who are at once very far away and very close by. Yours, A.B. I am not feeling very well; my heart is playing up; but I am under no illusions—I believe this may go on for a long time yet. Handwritten notes by René Benjamin on loose sheets in 12mo and 8vo formats and press cuttings, including: Etc... FIND THE FULL AND DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THIS LOT IN OUR ONLINE AUCTION CATALOGUE
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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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