Mendès, Abraham Catulle, French poet and writer (1841-1909). "Le Consentement". Autograph manuscript signed.

€ 280.00

Autograph manuscript of the tragic poem "Le Consentement" ("Consent"), first published in 1871 in the poetry collection "Le Parnasse contemporain", the flagship anthology of the Parnassianist movement.

It was Catulle Mendès who initiated "Le Parnasse contemporain" when his friend and fellow poet Louis-Xavier de Ricard was struggling with his financially unsuccessful periodical "L'Art". He advised Ricard to turn the weekly "L'Art" into an annual publication of poetry. After a failed first run in 1866 the French editor and publisher Alphonse Lemerre took over "Parnasse", paid its several debts, and stewarded its further publications. The journal helped popularize many Parnassian writers, such as Leconte de Lisle, Théodore de Banville, Heredia, Gautier, Baudelaire, Sully Prudhomme, Mallarmé, François Coppée, Charles Cros, Nina de Callias, Léon Dierx, Louis Ménard, Verlaine, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, and Anatole France.

A portrait of Mendès in his study, clipped from a newspaper article published on the occasion of his 70th birthday, is loosely enclosed. With handwritten biographical notes by a former collector on the reverse.