56 - BALZAC (Honoré de). Signed autograph letter to Clément Thélidon and Jean Joseph Stanislas Damas-Hinard. No place, [spring] 1843. 1½ pages, in-8 format, address on the spine.

BALZAC (Honoré de). Signed autograph letter to Clément Thélidon and Jean Joseph Stanislas Damas-Hinard. No place, [spring] 1843. 1½ pages, in-8 format, address on the spine. A BEAUTIFUL LETTER ON THE PUBLICATION OF *DAVID SECHARD, or The Suffering of an Inventor*. Balzac published this novel almost simultaneously as a serial and in bookstores: the serial began in the periodical *L’État* (June 1843) and continued in the periodical *Le Parisien* (August 1843), while in the meantime the complete text was published in bookstores under the title *Ève et David* (July 1843) as the third part of *ILLUSIONS PERDUES* in Volume VIII of *La Comédie humaine*. “I was at my brother-in-law Mr. Surville’s house [Eugène Midy de La Greneray, known as Surville] at the agreed-upon time, and it was by mistake that you were told otherwise. If you would be so kind as to return tomorrow, Thursday, at the same time and place, I will be there. The arrangements we need to make must be settled promptly, as the matter concerns having my work typeset—either in Paris or in the provinces—which makes quite a difference in the cost of the corrections... I MUST BEGIN IT THIS WEEK; I AM FORCED TO DO SO BY THE DELIVERIES OF THE VOLUME TO WHICH IT BELONGS IN *La Comédie Humaine*, which will begin next month. If you do not accept it for *L’État*, I will be forced to make arrangements with another newspaper by Saturday. That should be enough to assure you that I’ll be very punctual tomorrow. In any case, please always go to Mr. Surville’s office and ask for me, without paying any attention to what they might tell you downstairs...” Eager to launch a new newspaper, *L’État*, Peyssonnel and Didier worked from the fall of 1842 onward to raise funds and recruit authors. Through the publicist Damas-Hinard, they reached an agreement with Balzac to publish a novel in serial form about the stragglers of Napoleon’s armies. The writer did not write a single line of it and finally proposed his novel *David Séchard* on May 22, 1843. The serialized installments began appearing on June 9 in *L’État*, but the periodical did not last long enough to publish the entire text, ceasing publication as early as June 21, 1843. This letter is missing from the edition of Balzac’s Correspondence published by Garnier.