Charles BAUDELAIRE Autographed letter signed Poulet Malassis seal 1858

  
Autographed address on the 4th page. Letter signed twice with the initials "CB" on the 4th page. Rare wax seal entirely and beautifully preserved.

Letter published in the correspondence established by Claude Pichois. Gallimard, Pléiade, Volume 1, p. Interesting letter that perfectly illustrates the ongoing emotional blackmail in Baudelaire's relationship with his publisher, as well as the perpetual financial acrobatics and rushes that Baudelaire would suffer until the end of his life. Particularly graphic and visual letter, due to its size (22 x 35.5 cm without frame), the complete preservation of its seal, and its colors (the bright red of the seal and the blue of the stamp).

In addition to the size, the presence of the exact hour of writing coupled with Baudelaire's feverish urgency offers a striking sense of presence. Size: 22 x 35.5 cm without frame / 33 x 46.5 cm with frame.

Our letter comes in an elegant black and gold frame, protected by anti-UV and anti-reflective glass. My dear friend, you have made me very happy and now you make me very unhappy. Everything in your letter is very right and truly irrefutable, except for the end (the expedient), which is absurd.

However, I respond to your letter because it is, in essence, just a repetition of objections that you and I had also foreseen and which I hoped to dispel or make you find trivial. First of all, two things: first, if I had completed all the work that represents the total desired amount, I would not need to implore your help.

Secondly, note that I did not hide that this was indeed an exceptional service; but at the same time, you understood that it was a matter of immediate enjoyment for me, and consequently, of more active work. Did this not have a value, at least a moral value?

When you ask me for something difficult to accomplish, or that even involves a risk, I will make my efforts to do it. Now, your letter: I told you, to summarize briefly: "I have a contract to fulfill; it gives me a deadline of six months; I delegate to you the income involved in the contract, and, to respond to you in case of laziness or death, I leave you a receipt for your tickets, with the possibility of being reimbursed from income of another nature.

In neither case, I admit, is the alignment between your deadlines and mine absolutely guaranteed. (In your letter, only this terrible alignment is mentioned).

When, in our conversation, you raised this objection, indeed quite serious for you, I replied that I could only resolve it through zeal and by the promise made to me by Calonne to always print as I send him material. A few more words: nothing I told you is absurd; you doubt nothing I told you.

So try to find in your court a new way to give me the peace I so ardently seek. For example: notes from me, payable at my mother's (a small added guarantee, that is, the horror of a protest at my mother's) and as, after all, Malassis would remain responsible as an endorser, I would also make him the two delegations in question, however absurd that may seem. Do I need to tell you that you can draw on me, as you intended (I just thought of this foolishness), and that I simply ask you to be accurate?

As you have a strange mind, I beg you not to see here either an epigram or a caress. You were wrong to crown the explanation of your fears with complaints against the indiscreet.

Why do you want me to bear faults that are not mine? Answer me at 22 rue Beautreillis, and right away.

You can probably guess in what state I am. Hello to De Broise, I do hope you are not telling him all this. If you do not reply to me at 22, rue Beautreillis, the letter will only arrive very late. Delegation of Baudelaire's rights resulting from the contract concluded with La Revue Contemporaine, which Baudelaire had proposed to Poulet-Malassis. Alphonse de Calonne, director of "La Revue Contemporaine." In 1858, Baudelaire published two articles in it, "The Taste of the Infinite" and "On the Artificial Ideal, Hashish," which would later be included in "Artificial Paradises." 22, rue Beautreillis: address of Jeanne Duval, near the Place de la Bastille. Baudelaire practiced a system known as "shuttle," a dangerous exercise shared equally by his publisher and a few friends, with whom he exchanged accommodation notes based on no proven value.