Julien GRACQ / Signed autograph letter / A Beautiful Dark One / Novel / Renaudot

  

Autographed letter signed "Julien Gracq" to Thierry Maulnier Caen, November 4 [1945], 1 p. In-8° in purple ink on lined paper Central fold. In a familiar style, the writer apologizes to Maulnier who, six months after the publication of "Un Beau ténébreux," has not yet received his copy. [nickname given to Thierry Maulnier], I learn from a newspaper clipping (Concorde, from Lyon, [a Lyon newspaper published between 1944 and 1947] I believe) that you have not received "Un Beau ténébreux.

" I am upset about this, as you were one of the first people I asked Corti to send the book to, which was published six months ago. It was the least I could do, as I have not forgotten your friendly welcome in 1939. The book was also addressed, allow me to say this without flattery, to one of the few critics who matter to me.

I therefore ask you to excuse this oversight. If you have not found the book, would you kindly send me a card with your exact address: I would be pleased to send it to you, and it will not, believe me, be to "hit" you with a letter or an article: the book has been out of print for a while and this kind of publicity does not obsess me.

I am not sending it directly because I have very few copies left and I would not want to lose one. So excuse this negligence from Corti: but I did not want you to think that I had forgotten you, which would have been a real discourtesy. [He adds his address:] address: L. Poirier assistant at the faculty of letters 14 place St Martin Caen. [Then in postscript:] I must thank you regarding this article, for not forgetting "Angel.

" Since you speak of Butor with justified esteem, you will undoubtedly be interested to know that he considered the introduction to French poetry "sensational," as he says. Published in the spring of 1945, "Le Beau ténébreux" is Gracq's second novel published by José Corti, to which the writer will remain loyal throughout his literary career.

He writes his novel in two parts: the first part is drafted in Silesia during Gracq's captivity, while the second is written simultaneously with the poems of "Liberté grande" in 1942. The work develops, in the form of long dialogues, a reflection on literature that will be continued in his later major theoretical texts. Although the novel receives mixed reviews in specialized journals, its success with readers is very real. Proposed for the Prix Renaudot, "Un Beau ténébreux" receives three votes, drawing attention to "Le Château d'Argol," published seven years earlier and reissued in 1945.