PÉLADAN (Joséphin). Set of 19 letters and cards. - Lot 148

PÉLADAN (Joséphin). Set of 19 letters and cards. Correspondence of 5 autograph letters signed "Péladan" and "Mérodack", addressed TO THE ART CRITIC GABRIEL MOUREY. 1887. Correspondence mainly concerning his temporary quarrel with the worldly circles of Marseilles, and in particular with his great friend CLEMENCE BASSET (whom he sometimes nicknamed "la princesse" and described in ISTAR), wife of banker Henry Couve, following an article about him published by Jean Lorrain on July 16, 1887 in L'Événement. Having fled Paris for a time to escape the difficulties he had encountered with Henriette Maillat and his father Louis-Adrien Péladan, Joséphin Péladan had spent some time in Marseille in the late winter of 1887, where he had frequented social circles and made friends with the young Gabriel Mourey. August 17, 1887: "... A veritable conspiracy seems to be banishing me from Marseille... Now... I have a furious, furious desire to come and scandalize...". August 24, 1887: on his works ISTAR and À COEUR PERDU, the painter and engraver FELICIEN ROPS. September 2, 1887: "... Above our satisfied pride, there is the floating of the great pennon of Balzac & Baudelaire, which has floated. Et nobis & diis: it's the victory of ideal beauty...". Paris, September 8 1887: "... LORRAIN's article has done this, that the Couve family can't receive me, & this lovely stroke of the pen closes Les Platanes to me, not morally but socially: they're forced to... I'm going to... try, very proudly, to regain my worldly footing, & wider. But, at the same time, I'll take ISTAR's notes; & if, in November, I leave Marseille beaten, I'll take with me the manuscript, or rather notes of horror, about this city..." 1906: to ask to be paid what he was owed by the magazine Les Arts de la vie, edited by Gabriel Mourey. - Autograph letter signed [probably to actor Constant Coquelin dit Coquelin aîné]. 1905. "I leave my CAGLIOSTRO with you. In addition to the truth of the unsung physiognomy of the condottiere of the occult, it has two circumstances in its favor. First, it needs no special sets or costumes. Secondly, it goes to the very heart of this Revolution, which is the only legend for many of our contemporaries, whose culture is... primitive. I think I've come closer to the general public...". - Set of 13 autograph letters and cards. 1886-1913 and n.d. Or: 3 letters to a lady, [1886-1887] and n.d., concerning among other things his work L'INITIATION SENTIMENTALE, La Philosophie absolue by the homeopathic physician Benoît Mure, and Adrien Péladan's Anatomie homologique. To his "dear friend", 1904: on his play Sémiramis, about to be performed in Nîmes on July 24, 1904, and the difficulties he encountered ("... I understand why Wagner had a bad temper. We had bothered him too much..."). To a "Dear Sir", 1905: on the COMTESSE GREFFULHE, Paul Mariéton, and the Orange Festival. To a "Monsieur et honoré confrère", 1905: thanks for a glowing review of his play SEMIRAMIS. 2 cards to a "cher confrère", December 1910 or January 1911: concerning his article of December 31, 1910 on the Chauchard collection, in which he talks about Millet's L'Angélus. To a "dear Monsieur", 1913. Concerning his play Saint-François d'Assise. To his "dear Sir", n.d. Invitation to a dinner party to which JUDITH GAUTIER would also be attending. To his "chez Seigneur", n.d. on an invitation to speak, "... I gladly accept this opportunity to assert the guiding & saving principles. I will give a special lecture: The Question of the Churches & the Social Role of Art...". To a Mr. Thomas, n.d. concerning an exchange of books between them, including a Songe de Poliphile.