COLETTE (1873 - 1954) 15 L.A.S., 1920-1923 and n.d., to Léopold Marcha nd; approx. 32 pages in-4 on blue paper, most on Castel-Novel letterhead, 11 envelopes (defects to 1st). Beautiful, friendly correspondence to the actor and playwright, a faithful companion. [September 1920], on his nomination as Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur: "My child Léo, how kind you are. Without your initiative, I wouldn't have this ribbon. [...] It's a bit singular, and extremely pleasant"... The children played jokes on him: "I found two red ties at my place setting, the decanter girdled in crimson, my chair at the table bound in crimson, and a hundred little bows on the tails of the grapes. That's very nice. [...] It's September, in all the beauty of the word. This still, heated air, cooled by a single breath, and so many wasps and huffing cats, and so many roses, it's a time of year you'd like to eat, drink and hug. For there is nothing like being a coarse nature!"... 1921 [28.IV]. It's springtime in Corrèze: "Everything's too beautiful, I'm drunk. And then my arm shakes from driving the tractor [...]. Nightingales don't know their cavatina yet, and God knows, the little bastards, if they repeat it! My daughter is a very pleasant sort of progressive peasant. She talks anatomy, circulatory system, pistil and stamen and carbon monoxide. Just like I'm talking to you. She knows the names of the four little bones in the ear, and it's about damn time, because I'd forgotten them"... - "Didn't you see Castel-Novel in springtime, you little wretch! The walls are sparkling with lizards and blond with bees. And the smell of lilacs in the morning... The Pati-Pati has happily turned into a herding dog. What's more, she's discovered that bathing is not a hygienic punishment. She jumps flat into the water, spread-eagled like a frog, and comes out of it laughing up to her ears, only to dive back in afterwards" She finishes adapting Chéri for the theater... - April 30]. She is not afraid of the 3rd round at the Vaudeville: "I have a premonition. The Athénée? Peuh [...] if we can't do it elsewhere". She's counting on a reading effect. "I put a thousand things in Act 3! Moui, my darling child, you sent me lilies of the valley, enough to ward off fate. I missed a beautiful little snake yesterday, the color of powdered slate"... - [September 14]. "I brought here a magnificent flu, which is curing me at present, and for the rest I let myself live, stuffing garlic into every pore". She asks him to bring her "the bookscatalogues because I foresee an inevitable famine and will have to lizard"... -October 1st]. She went for a drive with Sidi [her husband Henri de Jouvenel] in Haute-Corrèze: "It's magnificent! What are we going to see in Switzerland that's so beautiful? I had no idea about this Corrèze! [...] M... for women of letters! - December 28]. "As God is my witness, I wanted to lose weight. But I was wrong to take him as witness. He knows all about it, and plays jokes on me: the rain, thanks to him, doesn't stop. I drink to console myself, I eat to forget, I sleep in defiance, and the rest of the time my daughter recites fables by La Fontaine. Fontaine"... Bertrand [de Jouvenel] writes a play... She awaits the Marchands' arrival: "we'll work, among mulled wine and the screams of a mare with a nervous bladder"... [January 2, 1922]. "Cap d'Ail, hiiii! I can do it, and what a pleasure! We'll talk about it, I'll be back on Wednesday. In a sweat of blood, I've just made a new [...]. Don't tell me about Le Disparu, pleasantly truncated at first, then strangely punctuated with asterisks, and moteux"... 1923. [October 19]. "I see that work fever is devouring your kidneys - come". She begs him to bring some fly killers, as it's "a delicious heatwave. The flies think it's July and give themselves away. He will help her write her lecture, and has to work on the play... - November 1st]. She's sad he's not coming, but understands: "Work comes first, alas. If you think this conference amuses me. Having prepared "La vie à deux" for ten days, I can see that I'll have to abandon it, on pain of shattering or frightening the audience. I assure you, speaking in the provinces is like giving a lecture to Demoiselles. So I'm not ready and I'm cutting back"... On her return "we'll go and eat andouillette and gras-double. [...] we'll have a useful chat, because I'm off again for conferences that will provide me with a material necessity". Bertrand, who is celebrating his twentieth birthday, has the flu... - November 3]. She arrives in Paris before setting off again for 8 days of conferences: " "