198 - DAUDET (Léon), 1867–1942.

DAUDET (Léon), 1867–1942. Autograph letter signed “Léon Daudet,” Château de Oray, August 10, [1904], 4 pp., in-8, to Henri Lavedan, with envelope. Following the publication of a book, Daudet responds to Lavedan’s congratulations, which pleased him: “[...] One is so full of doubt about a finished work. [...]” No word from Marchand despite several telegrams (J. B. Marchand, explorer and general, “the man of Fachoda”): “ [...] he withdraws into that thick, regal silence that is like his second Africa. I know he is working, and I have no idea what he is working on [...]” To the writer, Marchand is a man “burdened by destiny.” He believes Marchand is still in Paris, where Baratier saw him, but “he has retained, even in civilized life, the mystery and resilience of the bush.” And Daudet concludes about him: “Marchand has the ideal quality of being a witness to a profound state of mind in the country, proof that something has not been lost—a facet of the ethnic miracle, that miracle which fools deny. But he may pass his flame on to another if he happens to be burned by it—I mean, if he succumbs under a burden too heavy to bear. My father used to say: ‘The century oscillates between Hamlet and Napoleon.’” Enclosed, from the same sender: - a set of 5 handwritten letters addressed to Max and Alex Fischer (with envelopes), dated between April 5, 1918, and January 13, 1931, including 3 on Action Française letterhead, regarding the writing of his Provençal novel “Dans la Lumière,” a botched interview, a proposed collection of “contemporary backsides” (“‘it would be a huge success; I’m keeping Millerand’”), an article he wrote on Maurras’s *4 Nuits de Provence* (“‘now that’s a masterpiece’”), a review of *La Femme et l’Amour*,” etc. - a handwritten letter, Paris, October 4, 1933, to a theater director, asking for a box in his own name for the premiere of *L’Arlésienne* “as a substitute, given the circumstances, for the bathtub you usually assign to the director of *Action Française*.”