MAUPASSANT Baron de VAUX / Signed autograph letter / Model Bel Ami / Duroy

  
De Vaux" to Robert Pinchon Paris, November 14, 1895, 1 p. In-8° on sky blue paper. Autographed address on the verso, stamped and postmarked. Small marginal loss at the opening, without affecting the text (see scans).

A rare letter from Baron de Vaux, one of the models for Georges Duroy in Bel-Ami. I do not know if I am spelling your name correctly, for while that escapes me, the memory of our good days at Maupassant's does not escape me.

It is even this memory that leads me today to write to you to ask if you would be willing to speak about my book "À Cheval," which has just been published. In this letter to Robert Pinchon, whom he knows to be a journalist, Baron de Vaux asks him for an editorial favor regarding his newly published book À Cheval, a study of French and foreign breeds from the perspective of riding horses, racing, hunting, draft, and arms, collectively illustrated by Ferdinand Bac, Clermont-Gallerande, and Jules Rothschild. He does not fail to invoke the memory of their mutual friend Guy de Maupassant, who served as a model for Georges Duroy, the main character in Bel-Ami. Maupassant and De Vaux met at Gil Blas, where he was the head of Échos. He was in charge of writing sports articles and signed as "Le Diable boiteux." Maupassant also dedicated the short story Un Sage to him, published in 1883. Maupassant and Robert Pinchon met at the Imperial Lyceum of Rouen. The latter's father, Adolphe, taught French there. Robert was in the same class as Louis de Poittevin, Guy's cousin.

The two friends later reunited in Paris. Pinchon, nicknamed "La Tôque," was part of the crew of boaters.

He returned to Rouen around 1880 and became a librarian for the city and a music and drama critic for Le Nouvelliste de Rouen. He wrote numerous plays, published in 1894 under the title Théâtre. The memory of his friend Maupassant is evoked in the preface of the work. Maupassant dedicated his short story L'Aventure de Walter Schnaffs to him in 1883.