COLETTE, Sidonie-Gabrielle. Autographed letter signed to Curnonsky. Around 1895

  
Autographed letter signed, (September 1895), to Maurice Edmond Saillant, known as Curnonsky. 4 pages in-12, 182 x 116, on the letterhead of the Chalet des Sapins in Lons-Le-Saulnier. Autographed letter signed addressed to Curnonsky, whom Colette affectionately nicknames Rnonsky. Colette's writing, more raw and relaxed than usual, reveals the deep friendship that united the two authors. It is also in this same year 1895 that Curnonsky was hired as a ghostwriter by Willy, and perhaps we should see in these first words a reference to writing difficulties: “Dear kid, I could tell you a bunch of big nasty things, that your ‘academic pig’ whom you claim is dozing next to the other, would really need poppy heads, given his insomnia, - I could tell you that Armenian paper can be found at Bon Marché, perfume department, on the first floor to the right when you enter through the street of Sèvres, - that, for a graphologist as distinguished as I am, your handwriting talks a little too much about your young character, but, as my niece Renée says, ‘today, I am Bbbonne!’ With a lot of b to make it (sic) more creamy.” In this letter, she refers to a work by the pamphleteer Henri Rochefort first published in the newspaper l'Intransigeant on August 2, 1880: “Have you asked at Dentu for ‘Miss Bismarck’?” She was preparing to pass through Munich to join the Bayreuth Music Festival, as announced by Willy in a postscript next to Colette's signature. He takes the opportunity to give some instructions to his young “collaborator,” also urging him to find the famous work by Rochefort: “My blue pig, I am post scripting my kid's letter to tell you to search at the national library for the trace of Miss Bismarck. We are leaving for Munich for ten days, and during my stay across the Rhine, I will need two topics.

So, send the big maneuvers as soon as possible, and take care, my little cat, I beg you.