6 autograph letters signed, 1 autograph postcard signed, 1 autograph greeting card signed, and 2 fragmented autograph letters.
Various formats. Together 21 pp. With 1 autograph envelope and a newspaper clipping of an obituary for Cilette Ofaire.
€ 1.200,00
Highly interesting correspondence with her publisher and friend Maurice Delamain of the Librairie Stock, spanning more than thirty years. Although Stock published four of Ofaire's novels between 1934 and 1956, the correspondence is mostly of a private nature, revealing a deep friendship between Ofaire and Delamain.
The earliest letter, dated 30 April 1925 and thus written long before her first publication with Stock, is a highly interesting testimony to Ofaire's itinerant life on a houseboat in the 1920s. Ofaire writes Delamain from Prague, where she and her husband Charles spent several months, both using the boat for gallery space: "Pour le moment j'ai organisé une exposition dans le bateau peint fraîchement, et je ne fais rien que recevoir des clients et essayer de vendre quelque chose. Ce qu'il y a de drôle, c'est que parfois ça réussit." However, the reason she contacted Delamain without knowing him personally, was to introduce the Czech-Austrian translator Grete Fantl, who was looking for French literature to translate into German. Fantl did indeed publish a translation of one of Apollinaire's short stories in 1926, but it is unclear whether this was in connection with Librairie Stock.
Ofaire had already embarked on her literary career when she wrote the long and mostly private letter dated 6 December 1938. In fact, she had just published the highly successful novel "Sylvie Velsey" with Stock and jokingly suggests to Delamain to publish her thank-you notes to critics who praised the novel, although only after her death and "not before". Despite this success, the novel did not win the Prix Femina, which had apparently been a possibility, leading her to declare: "Mes chers amis, je regrette seulement seulement de vous décevoir ainsi que Lefèvre. Pour tout le reste, je suis plus à l'aise ainsi qu'autrement. Il m'a été clair dès le début qu'une telle chose, si elle était désirable pour des questions matérielles, est, en général contraire à mon être. Je ne peux pas bien expliquer pourquoi". She also recounts a dinner with a mutual friend named Linette, when they served coq-au-vin, having "discovered" that their rooster had, "from a certain point of view, the physical characteristics of Hitler (in other words he did not care about his good neighbours)".
In a fragmented letter from 15 June 1960, Ofaire announces the completion of her final novel "La Place ou les rigueurs d'Adèle" (although in the letter she uses an earlier title "La Place ou Adèle et le Meurtie"), which she is impatient to send to Delamain: "Ce qu'il m'importerait de savoir, c'est si vous avez le temps et l'envie de prendre connaissance de ce manuscrit tel quel. [...] Naturellement j'aurai des palpitations jusqu'à ce que vous l'ayez lu, car j'en suis au point où je le trouve idiot". Stock would never publish this novel, as Delamain sold his company to Hachette in 1961. Therefore, the professional relationship between Ofaire and Delamain ended abruptly and, to her, somewhat shockingly. In a letter from 23 February 1961, she stresses that she would "never ever be angry" with Delamain, expressing her gratitude for his support and their friendship: "Durant près de trente ans vous m'avez fait confiance, aidée, soutenue, conseillée, et grâce à vous ma vie a été en harmonie avec ma mentalité et a eu un sens pour bien des gens. Car vous étiez ma sécurité. Cela représentait un état permanent dans lequel j'osais me risquer à être moi-même sans crainte, puisque vous vous teniez à la fois derrière moi comme un mur solide où m'appuyer et, très haut, devant moi dans la même direction, pour me montrer le chemin et m'empêcher de m'égarer". Nevertheless, Ofaire went through a crisis, as she reveals in the following letter from 20 September 1961, describing herself as "having completely lost" her footing. Ultimately, she wishes Delamain the best for his retirement: "Le mauvais moment est passé, celui où vous devriez vous arracher et où vous teniez encore par milles radicelles. Au contraire je me plais à imaginer que vous allés faire de votre liberté quelque chose de merveilleux, et personne ne saurait s'en réjouir plus que moi." In a charming postscript, Ofaire forbids Delamain to analyze it graphologically, as she wrote in a state of physical weakness due to a fever (Delamain was the president of the French graphological society).
5 letters and 1 fragment with autograph letterhead and a sketch of Ofaire's house in Sanary-sur-Mer.
Occasional tears and minor browning.
