GILLET Louis [Paris, 1876 - id., 1943], art historian and historian of French literature. Autograph letter signed, addressed to Albert Laprade. Montpellier, April 9, 1943; 3 1/2 pages in-8°. "My son informs us that he has just embarked for Paris on March 23rd with projects he has just executed for a "Concours des Places" instituted by the city. These are studies for future embellishments. The realization is not likely to have anything immediate. I do not know where the exhibition of these projects is taking place, nor who is on the jury [...]. My son has made, I believe, two projects. The one he is most keen on, and which he seems really happy with (as a plan and as architecture) is the one concerning the entrance to the Porte St Denis. I imagine that he will have made a sort of Piazza del Popolo, but on the scale of Paris. [...] There is nothing more petty than the Place de l'Opéra, nothing more mediocre than the Place du Théâtre Français, nothing more inextricable than the Rond Point de St Thomas d'Aquin. In short, since Gabriel and Mansart [...] there has not been a square in Paris that is on the scale of the modern movement. Guillaume prides himself on having done something truly monumental. It is not for me to judge. [...] What would be the use of youth if not to aim high and show audacity? »...