Autograph letter ssigned ("M. Fontane").
8vo. 3 pp. on bifolium.
€ 80.00
Interesting letter to an unnamed recipient, congratulating him on a book that was devoted to members of an institution that Fontane was part of, possibly the Académie de Marseille. Fontane reminisces about the poet Paul Reynier (1832-56) who had "initiated him to the charms of writing" and was also his predecessor as secretary to Ferdinand de Lesseps. Fontane alludes to the Panama Canal Scandal that was just about to unfold, asserting: "From this point of view, maybe he did right to die early, because he did not have my robust philosophy and the injustice would have made him cry" (transl.). He also mentions that he assisted in the reception of the "excellent Abbé Bayle" and, more recently, that he met the recipient's daughter and her husband.
The Panama Canal Scandal was the biggest corruption scandal and political crisis of the Third Republic, causing the collapse of three successive governments. In a bid to safe the ill-fated and underfunded project that had started construction works in Panama in 1881, Lesseps and his partners sold shares of their company to small investors from 1885 and a last stock issue in 1888, when the bankruptcy of the company was already immanent, was only possible due to the corruption of important French officials. Although the company was effectively bankrupt by 1889 and all works came to a halt, France delayed its liquidation until 1892. Apart from the political earthquake, the scandal led to a large corruption trial against Ferdinand de Lesseps, his son Charles, other managers of the company, and Marius Fontane himself. Another prominent defendant was the engineering contractor Gustave Eiffel who was initially convicted but doesn't seem to have been involved in the corruption scheme and was acquitted in second trial. Ferdinand de Lesseps's jail sentence was later overturned based on a formal defect, while his son served one year. Marius Fontane was ultimately sentenced to two years and a fine.
Well preserved.
