PROUST Marcel (1871-1922).

L.A.S. "Marcel Proust", [21 December 1919], to Gaston GALLIMARD; 4 pages large in-8. To his publisher. Proust has noted at the top "Urgent". He complains that Les Jeunes filles en fleurs is not available in many bookstores: "There were none. We didn't know when there would be any. I'll elaborate on that, but I'm crying". He discovered "enormous and quite natural mistakes, given the writing", in Jacques Rivière's typing. He talks about the articles on his book, including one by Léon Daudet, and the requests for extracts for the press... "What do you think of Mr. Dorgelès printing advertisements that begin as follows Prix Goncourt Roland Dorgelès 4 votes against 10 I don't find this very elegant. Naturally I will not protest. No more than I protested at being presented by your friends of the OEuvre as a candidate of the goupillon and the sacristy, when I was one of the very first dreyfusards, when I signed all the lists, when I sent my book to Picquart at Cherche Midi. The Lantern even says that it was as an antidreyfusard that I was appointed. "Only silence is great, all the rest is weakness". Don't be insolent with journalists. I will tell you the big trouble it could cause me (and has already caused me). Thank you very much for your announcements which I believe are very useful. But these empty bookshops?"... Correspondence, t. XVIII, p. 320. Marcel Proust-Gaston Gallimard, Correspondence (n° 128, p. 215).