"No Zeppelins here, no adventures. Nothing but the railway embankment": Francis Carco reports to Jeanne Landre from a military bakery
3 autograph letters signed.
8vo and oblong 12mo. Together 9½ (4+4+1½) pp.
€ 450.00
The highly interesting earlier letters were both written during Carco's military service in a "military bakery" somewhere along the Saône and are addressed to the novelist Jeanne Landre (1874-1936). Carco celebrates Landre's Bohemian literary figure Échalote, wallows in nostalgia for a lost Montmartre, makes references to the war, discourages Landre from joining the red cross, and reflects upon his own literary work following his first publication "Jésus-la-Caille" from 1914. To him, Échalote is a "sacré bout de femme" on whom he has a crush, and he "often rereads Échalote" to evoke "the good times of yore". Despite his complaint that "Montmartre is ruined", he wants to go together with Landre: "Il faut absolument que nous allions ensemble vadrouiller sur la Butte. Ce sera épatant. Vous me présenterez à vos amis et moi aux miens..., si ça vous chante. Chère amie, vous emballez pas sur la Caille où je croirais que c'est arrivé. Non, vous verrez plus tard. Je suis certain de faire mieux." Carco also complains that literature is "more often than not a luxury" and states his preference for "nefarious milieus" over the "chic people and the bourgeois". According his prediction, Paris will be even worse after the war, even if Landre is already "so disgusted by the current Paris", thus advising her not to think about it: "Bah n'y pensons pas trop à l'avance". While he wishes for Landres to "work solidly on a good book", his hope is to be transferred to the front with the help of an uncle who was a colonel of the artillery at Épinal so he can finally "thrash the Germans": "À quoi voulez-vous vous employer ? Laissez les blessés aux autres et travaillez solidement à un beau livre. Le reste est foutaise... La gloire, le chiqué, les galons... non, mais des fois... Moi il me reste le tenace espoir d'aller taper un jour dans les boches".
In the equally charming and loquacious second letter from 27 March, Carco again enthusiastically recalls the Montmartre of Échalote, while lamenting his current state: "Je vous envie de vadrouiller, chère amie... Ici pas de Zeppelin, pas d'aventures. Rien que le talus du chemin de fer, la gare, la Saône et, selon les nuits, la pluie, la lune ou les nuages". In a central passages, Carco decries the apparent belief of some people that he will only repeat himself after Jésus-la-Caille: "En effet, on m'a mis une étiquette et, naïvement, on croit que je ne saurai jamais rien écrire en dehors du Jésus. La bonne blague ! Vous verrez un jour que je suis capable de mieux. J'ai bon espoir. Je ne suis pas vidé".
The letter from 1948 is addressed to the critic Robert Kemp (1879-1959), thanking him for a favourable review.
