Autograph letter signed "Charles Baudelaire".
12mo. 1 p. With autograph address.
€ 22.000,00
To Émile Marcelin, editor of the magazin "La Vie parisienne", asking him to return Baudelaire's translation of two novels and an essay by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled "Habitations imaginaires", to the journalist Julien Lemer, who "will do with it what he wants": "Un extrême besoin d'argent me servira d'excuse auprès de vous si je vous reprends les habitations imaginaires, et si je vous prie de les remettre à Julien Lemer qui en fera ce qu'il voudra.
En vérité je n'ai pas de chance auprès de vous. J'espère que je me dédommagerai chez vous par un paquet de poèmes en proses. J'en ai bien une trentaine sur ma table mais ce sont des horreurs et des monstruosités qui feraient avorter vos lectrices enceintes. [...]".
Baudelaire explains his decision with an "extreme need of money", although it remains unclear what arrangement he had with Marcelin, whose highly successful magazin had only been lauched in February 1863. The extreme bitterness that speaks from the second part of the letter points to a conflictual relationship, as Baudelaire emphasizes that he "doesn't have a chance" with Marcelin. Despite this assumption, he announces to compensate the recipient with a "package of prose poems", while also ascertaining that the poems "are horrors and monstrosities that will cause your pregnant readers to abort".
Baudelaire's plan to publish his translations of Poe's novels "The domain of Arnheim" (1847) and "Landor's cottage" (1849), as well as the unusual essay "The Philosophy of Furniture" (1840) in a collection entitled "Habitations imaginaires" failed. They were ultimately part of the bigger anthology of Poe translations "Histoires grotesques et sérieuses" (Michel Lévy frères, Paris 1864).
Somewhat brownstained and dusted.
