[BAUDELAIRE (CHARLES) (1821-1867)] Autograph letter signed by Charles Baudelaire to Armand Fraisse In Paris, rue d'Amsterdam, hôtel de Dieppe, February 15, 1860, 4 pages in-8, envelope kept, address : " Monsieur Armand Fraisse, 44 ave Sala. Direction of the Octroi. Lyon. C.B.". Letter and envelope framed. Important letter. Absent from Charles Baudelaire, Lettres 1841-1866 (Paris, 1906). Cited as known but not transcribed because not located in Pichois and Ziegler (ed.), Baudelaire. Correspondance I, 1832-1860, p. 668. This letter will be followed by a letter from Baudelaire to Fraisse on February 18, 1860, the one where Baudelaire will say to Fraisse: "You feel poetry as a real dilettantist" (Pichois and Ziegler (ed.), Correspondance I, 1832-1860, pp. 674-677). Subsequently published in Baudelaire, Nouvelles lettres (2000), pp. 20-21. Armand Fraisse (1830-1877) was a journalist and literary critic. He was secretary of the Administration of L'Octroi de Lyon. He published several articles on Baudelaire (gathered under the title Sur Baudelaire. 1857-1869. Textes recueillis et présentés par Claude et Vincenette Pichois, Gembloux, 1973). In his writings published in the Lyonnais newspaper Le Salut public, Armand Fraisse defended Charles Baudelaire accused of immorality at the time of the publication of Les Fleurs du Mal, putting the great visionary poet in his rightful place. These letters testify to that and to the respect Baudelaire had for Armand Fraisse. The letter begins: "Sir, It is yesterday 14 that I read your letter dated January 25, reported by Mr. Delâtre printer, who found it unsealed at L'Artiste. The administration of L'Artiste is as careful as that of the Voltaire hotel: what one does not steal, one loses [...] an article of yours is in itself an interesting thing; I have already read several of them and I have often thought that if we had many articles as well done in our Parisian newspapers, it would serve us to bear more patiently the inevitable stupidity with which we are enveloped". Baudelaire also evokes his admiration for the "Sonnets de M. Soulary": "It is one of those books that poets buy and keep. But if it is an edition with new material, tell him that I will accept it with joy. Tell him also that I have a deep esteem for his spirit...". This is Joséphin Soulary (1815-1891), a poet from Lyon, who published his Sonnets humoristiques in 1858, 1859 and 1872: we have a letter from Joséphin Soulary to Charles Baudelaire on February 22, 1860, thanking him for his kind words towards him, echoing the present letter (see Etudes Baudelairiennes, vol. 4/5, Lettres à Charles Baudelaire (1973), p. 357). In the present letter, Baudelaire evokes the re-publication of the Flowers of Evil: "Since you have deigned to take care of the Flowers, I announce that they will reappear this year, minus six pieces, naturally, but increased by 20 others, at least. I presume that we will print in April. Provenance: Private collection