Search Results: Authors starting with V from Le Manuscrit Français

VERDI, Giuseppe (1813-1901)
Autograph letter signed " GVerdi " to M. Cartier
Busseto, 25th July 1898, 1 p. in-8° on laid bi-folio paper
Verdi sends his signature to his correspondent


" Mon cher Monsieur Cartier,
N'ayant pas depuis longtemps entendu parler de l'affaire Mollien, je vous avais écrit hier. Aujourd'hui je viens de recevoir votre billet, et je m'empresse de vous envoyer la signature que vous me demandez.
Recevez mes compliments distingués
GVerdi "


We will notice the hesitant writing of Verdi, here in the last years of his life. He was to die three years later at the age of 87.
Verdi's letters written in French are rather uncommon.

VERLAINE, Paul (1844-1896)
Original photograph of Paul Verlaine by Paul Marsan, known as Dornac
Period albumen print, mounted on thick cardboard (140 x 190 mm) legended "Nos Contemporains chez eux" in the photographer's credit "Dornac & Cie, 10 rue Adam Mickiewicz"
[Café François 1er, boulevard St Michel, Paris, 28th May 1892], 135 x 180 mm
Slight fold on lower left margin of the cardboard, tiny chip on lower margin of the photograph, otherwise very good original condition
Timeless portrait of Verlaine, sitting on a bench at café François 1er, in front of a large glass of absinthe


The poet's eyes are a little murky; on the table, next to the glass lie a few sheets of paper, an inkwell, his cane and his hat.
This photograph immortalizes Verlaine in one of the cafés boulevard Saint-Michel where he had his habits and received writers, friends…
By the late 1880s, Dornac had undertaken a series of portraits of the celebrities of his time entitled Nos contemporains chez eux.
Verlaine's photography… Read More

VERLAINE, Paul (1844-1896)
Autograph poem signed " Paul Verlaine "London, 1873, 1 p. in-8°, on laid paperFold marks, slightly irregular right hand margin, pinhole on central fold
A highly significant poem, evoking the chaotic and miserable escape to London with Arthur RimbaudVerlaine makes an innovation from the traditional sonnet and does his first attempt in verses of thirteen syllables
" Sonnet boiteux
Ah vraiment c'est triste, ah, vraiment ça finit trop mal.Il n'est pas permis d'être à ce point infortuné.Ah ! vraiment c'est trop la mort du naïf animalQui voit tout son sang couler sous son regard fané.
Londres fume et crie. O quelle ville de la Bible !Le gaz flambe et nage et les enseignes sont vermeilles.Et les maisons dans leur ratatinement terribleÉpouvantent comme un sénat de petites vieilles.
Tout l'affreux passé saute, piaule, miaule et glapitDans le brouillard rose et jaune et sale des SohosAvec des indeeds et des allrights et des hâos.
Non vraiment – c'est trop un martyre sans… Read More

[VERLAINE] KRANTZ, Eugénie (18–/1897)
Autograph letter signed twice "Eugénie Krantz" to Edmond Lepelletier
Paris, 39 rue Descartes, 8th January 1896, 2 pp. in-12 oblong
THE DEATH OF VERLAINE
Very moving, first-hand testimony on the last moments of Verlaine by his mistress Eugenie Krantz. Close to misery, constantly running after money, she sheltered the dying poet in her apartment at 39 Rue Descartes. He died on the evening of January 8, 1896, just moments after this letter was written.


"Paul Verlaine, your devoted friend, is living his last moments..."

In a phonetic french, she writes:
"Monsieur Paul Verlaine vautre dévoué ami est à la dernière extremite. Veuliez je vous emprie venire le voire desuite car peutetre demain il serai trop [tard]… Venez le plus vite posibl si vous vouloi voir votre ami. Monsieur mes amitiés empresse sons amie Eugénie Krantz. Priaire monsieur de venire desuite pour monsieur Paul Verlaine. […] Mlle Krantz 39 rue Descartes"


Verlaine died that evening at… Read More

VERLAINE, Paul (1844-1896)
Autograph letter signed " P Verlaine " to Jules Rais
[Paris] 39 rue Descartes, 2 January [18]96, 1 p. in-12° on laid paper
Some tiny spots
One of Verlaine's last letters, with a hesitant handwriting, a week before his death


" Cher ami,
Oui, j'adhère à votre journal. Imprimez-moi parmi collaborateurs et m'écrivez détails/
Très, très souffrant. Au lit et au lait. C'est pourquoi je vous écris si peu et si mal.
A vous de cœur.
P Verlaine
39 rue Descartes "


This letter is a response to a request from Jules Rais who announces to Verlaine, in a letter of late December 1895, the imminent creation of the magazine L'Image and invites the poet to become one of its collaborators:
" J'en suis secrétaire de rédaction. Des graveurs sur bois l'illustreront afin de lutter contre les procédés industriels et de rendre au livre sa beauté de jadis. Goncourt, Zola […] ont promis leur collaboration. Roger Marx en est. On annonce Huysmans, Geffroy, Descaves, Mendès, Barrès,… Read More

VERLAINE, Paul (1844-1896)
Original photograph of Paul Verlaine by Otto Wegener
[Paris, 1893], cabinet format (10,8 x 16,8 cm)
Period albumen portrait mounted on thick cardboard and embossed in the photographer's credit
Tiny spots, remarkable original condition
Famous and last portrait of the poet by Otto in preparation for his candidacy for the French Academy


Paul Verlaine commissioned the photographer to take a series of portraits when he considered applying for the Académie Française. Several tests are then carried out.
For these photographs, the poet poses with the famous scarf of the house Charvet, which had been given to him by Robert de Montesquiou.
Three years before his death, the poet appears the Socratic face, the hunchbacked forehead, his gaze sunk under the eyebrow arch, sporting the chamaré scarf of which he was so proud.
This portrait is one of the most famous of the poet, it is presented here in a remarkable state of preservation.
Swedish-born photographer Otto Wegener (1849-1922)… Read More