Signed Autograph Letter by Georges Simenon in 1953, Writer and Author of Maigret

  

Letter on fine paper for air mail printed in the name and address in Connecticut, United States, of the writer Georges Simenon, typed and signed by hand. Address: Shadow Rock Farm, Lakeville, Connecticut. Text typed to Madame Geneviève Gruzu in Nice: Dear Madam, I thank you for your letter of June 6th, which was forwarded to me by the Presses de la Cité.

I will inform them, in the same correspondence, of your request, and I have no doubt that you will soon receive the novel in question and that my publisher will enroll you in their press service, as you desire. Please accept, dear madam, the expression of my eager sentiments. (Simenon lived in Lakeville from 1950 to 1955). Format: sheet 27 x 18 cm. Good condition, slightly yellowed with age, creases from use (the letter was placed in an envelope) (see scan). The abundance and success of his detective novels, including the Maigret series, partially overshadow the rest of his very rich body of work: 193 novels, several autobiographical works, and numerous articles and reports published under his own name, as well as 176 novels, dozens of short stories, romantic tales, and articles published under 27 pseudonyms. He is the most widely read Belgian author in the world. The cumulative print runs of his books reach 550 million copies. Georges Simenon is, according to the Index Translationum, the seventeenth author of all nationalities combined, the third French-language author after Jules Verne, and the most translated Belgian author in the world (3,500 translations in 47 languages). Among the first men of letters to recognize him as a great writer were André Gide, fascinated by Georges Simenon's creativity, who wished to meet him since his success in detective fiction. He questioned him repeatedly, exchanged nearly weekly correspondence to follow the creative meanders of this popular writer, and took the surprising habit of annotating the margins of all his novels, concluding in 1939: "Simenon is a genius novelist and the most truly novelistic writer we have in our literature today." He was the first contemporary novelist to be adapted in the early sound era with La Nuit du carrefour and Le Chien jaune, published in 1931 and brought to the screen as early as 1932. Simenon and the actor were very close friends, and the actor starred in a total of ten films adapted from Simenon's works.