228 - [MODERN LITERATURE—MANUSCRIPTS]

[MODERN LITERATURE—MANUSCRIPTS] [ARTICLES AND ESSAYS]. LOT of 2 manuscripts. -VARIOT, Jean. French scholar, essayist, novelist, and playwright. Small autograph manuscript signed, on the United States. (ca. 1920–1930). 11 double-sided folios in small 8vo format, numbered. Deletions and corrections. Legible handwriting. Unpublished reflections and critiques on the United States. The author, Jean James Joseph Gaston, known as Jean Variot (1881–1962), revisits the remarks of the Académie de Lyon, which in 1782 wondered whether “the discovery of America was beneficial or harmful to humankind.” He begins his discussion by openly criticizing that line of reasoning and cites the so-called hostile relations between Spain and America as an example: “The cruelty attributed to the Spaniards must be one of those politically motivated lies of the same sort as the lies spread by the aforementioned school against France’s splendid past.” He defends himself by highlighting the “qualities” of South Americans, in contrast to the “Yankees.” Then, the author asserts his categorical position: “Wilson (...) whom statesmen responsible for European affairs regarded as the arbiter of the world (...) for, after all, Wilson was and is a madman, and this madman was convenient; he served as a smokescreen for a vast mass of voters.” He concludes by attempting to persuade his reader: Americans who love France—and there are some—think exactly what I have just said. That is precisely why they love France! . Probably written after World War I and Wilson’s Fourteen Points for peace... Variot, a folklorist and lover of Alsace, would eventually collaborate with the Germans after having been an anti-Dreyfusard. ANTI-AMERICANISM. -ZALESKI, Zygmunt L. A Major Movement in 19th-Century Polish Poetry. Paris, (ca. 1930). Narrow 8vo (ca. 33 x 10.5 cm). 41 loose, oblong leaves, numbered. Written in ink (center fold, some soiling on the reverse, small tear with no loss at the end). Signed autograph manuscript. Text of an article or lecture, fair-copied, with a few rare erasures. Zaleski distinguished himself through his active role in promoting Polish literature in Paris beginning in 1914, where he held the first chair of Polish studies. He subsequently played an active role in the Resistance and worked to foster Franco-Polish relations. Zygmunt Lubicz-Zaleski (born Zygmunt Zaleski of the Lubicz family) was a Polish writer, poet, patriotic scholar, and diplomat, born in Klonowiec (1882–1967). 19th-CENTURY POLISH LITERATURE.