"To equip myself for this duty with the most absurd disguises": George Sand as a grandmother and mother

Sand, George, French writer (1804-1876). Autograph letter signed.

€ 2,500.00

Charming letter to Charles Edmond, editor at Le Temps, concerning an article on the puppet theatre of her son Maurice in Nohant. Sand apologizes for a delay due to her merry duties as a grandmother during carnival, as she played the piano for her dancing granddaughters and dressed up as "an old Turk with a fake nose and an old Pierrot with the powdered figure" (transl.). Furthermore, her cook got married to a managing road construction worker who accepted an apartment in Sand's house, so as not to deprive the family of their "good cordon bleu". She warns Edmond that the "article reached frightening proportions" and gives him free hand for its publication, advising that it might better fit the "entertainment section rather than the feuilleton". For the planned publication as a book with Michel Lévy Frères, Sand would add a "purely literary preface".

The article "Le théâtre des marionnettes de Nohant" appeared in Le Temps on 11/12 May 1876. It was among Sand's final publications; she died less than one month later on 8 June 1876. In 1890, Maurice Sand published with Calmann Lévy the book that his mother had announced to Edmond. An ingenious puppeteer and puppet maker, Maurice Sand is overshadowed by his famous mother. The letter bears beautiful testimony to George Sand's appreciation of her son's work and her dedication to her granddaughters. The family home in Nohant still houses the puppet theatre and displays Maurice's creations.

On stationery with blindstamped monogram. Minor browning.