An invitation to Le Clos Arsène Lupin
1 autograph letter signed "Maurice Leblanc", 1 autograph letter monogramed, and 1 autograph postcard signed "Maurice".
4to and postcard format. Together 4 pp.
€ 1,250.00
Correspondence with his close friend, the translator Louis Tabulet, concerning a meeting and an invitation to spend some days in Leblanc's villa in Étretat. In the postcard from 5 July 1893, Leblanc asks Tabulet to visit him early in the morning, as he has an appointment with the publisher Paul Ollendorff. Ollendorff published Leblanc's first novel "Une femme" in 1893 and would be his publisher until 1904, with a total of nine publications.
The much later letters from the summer of 1916 are an invitation to spend some days in Étretat "during the great storm" of the First World War together with Leblanc, his second wife Marguerite and her son Claude. Since 1915 Leblanc rented a villa in Étretat, Normandy; he bought the place outright in 1918 and named it Le Clos Lupin in homage to his most famous character, Arsène Lupin. On 16 June 1916 Leblanc first announced his idea to Tabulet, noting that they had rented a "charming villa" and that Étretat "has the advantage of being almost deserted" during that time of the year except for English guests, hoping that this information might entice his anglophile friend - apparently with success, as Leblanc asks his friend to give him a day to find a housekeeper before joining him in Étretat (21 June 1916). In another reference to the "tragic times" of the war, Leblanc emphasizes how much he looks forward to spending time by the sea with his friend. Today, Le Clos Arsène Lupin is a museum dedicated to Maurice Leblanc and his famous character.
Traces of folds. Some browning.
