François Mauriac / Signed Autograph Letter / Flesh and Blood / Novel / 1920

  
Handwritten letter signed "François Mauriac" to Jacques Boulanger of the magazine L'Opinion [Paris] 89 rue de la Pompe, October 31, 1920, 1 p. In-12° Autograph address on the back, cancelled stamp. Light ink smudge indicating Mauriac folded the paper while the ink was still wet. Mauriac thanks his correspondent for the glowing review published in L'Opinion for his recently released novel: La Chair et le Sang. The Argus becomes blind: friends are talking to me today about the review you did of my novel [La Chair et le Sang]; and I hadn't seen it.

I don't want to wait for my bookseller to send me the issue of L'Opinion, to express my heartfelt gratitude and sympathy. Published in October 1920 by Emile-Paul Frères, La Chair et le Sang is a story inspired by the suicide, in 1909, of Charles Demange, nephew of Maurice Barrès, one of Mauriac's literary masters in his youth. The writer also reflects on his own personal questions and love troubles.