André GIDE / Signed Autograph Letter / Friendship / Mercure de France / Writing

  

Autographed letter signed "André Gide" to Charles Chanvin Cuverville, c. Former small trace of dampness in the lower margin. André Gide presents a touching demonstration of friendship.

"So in haste a dear friend - because I received your two letters one after the other - Yes, I am deeply and sincerely your friend - and it was not against you, but against myself that my reproaches turned the other day, because my soul was tormented - so it took this exquisite letter from you to make me somewhat forgiven, certainly not to you, but to myself - to bring calm back to my troubled affections. It was up to you to prevent me from repenting of anything by subsequently showing myself worthy of the confidences that my too intense sympathy had made me hastily reveal. I read your letter and therefore regret nothing anymore - but isn't it so, you understand that I had to warn you - all of this being very serious - and you cannot blame me, because in all of this I showed myself too much as your friend. I cannot write to you at length today, too busy with my work. Your letter - your letters are exquisite and make me love you more.

I am happy to see how well you have managed to make yourself loved by a few rare friends. You understood, I think, that it was impossible for me to have a friend who was not also theirs; so it would be necessary to form there, to fight against the external filth, like a rare society in which each member, through the continuous desire for the esteem of others, finds himself, almost against his will, driven to the noblest actions, the highest thoughts, to the most touching altitude - "honesty" - shall we render it in chorus. Dear Chanvin, - how beautiful friendship would become - I am cordially André Gide." He collaborated for a while with Mercure de France and L'Ermitage before joining the judiciary.