VALÉRY (Paul). 3 autograph letters signed to his friend Noém - Lot 164

VALÉRY (Paul). 3 autograph letters signed to his friend Noémie Révelin. The wealthy widow of lawyer and socialist activist Louis Révelin, Noémie Lepet ran an intellectual and political salon in Paris, frequented by Paul Valéry, Léon Blum, Charles Seignobos, Paul Langevin, Henri Focillon and others. She is also the maternal grandmother of Roland Barthes. [Paris], "Vendredi", [June 28, 1929]. "It's becoming impossible to see each other, not even to telephone! I'm swamped and the 24 hours are going bankrupt! Yesterday came back late from the caravan, which was quite amusing. Today - tomorrow - [Julien-Pierre] Monod, HONEGGER, IDA [Arthur Honegger was then composing, to a libretto by Paul Valéry, the score for his melodrama AMPHION which would be premiered with the dancer Ida Rubinstein], the doctor, an interview, what do I know? It's all madness. And I was up until 1 a.m. last night, filing and re-filing and amending these damned yellowing proofs. And Niclausse [probably the sculptor Paul Niclausse, who made an effigy of Paul Valéry around 1930] asked me by a publisher (!) to put in a good word for him with Marshal L[yautey]. He could have turned to me. I'm broken, and I feel a mask of fatigue on my face... Goodbye, and perhaps a ray of light in this hallali of time..." (1 p. in-8, envelope preserved). - Paris], "Thursday" [April 24, 1930]. "I telephoned the Odeon yesterday, imagining that you were in Paris. My head all disordered, between questions of tickets and DESESPOIRS OF SPEECH (CAR J'EN DESESPERE), had misheard the word Tuesday in v[otre] letter... We're leaving tonight only. No desire to leave, but on the contrary to TRAIN THIS BALL OF WHITE PAPER WHICH DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO BLACKEN..." (1 p. in-8 oblong, envelope preserved). - Paris, June 13, 1930]. "JE CREVE. THE SKY IS LIKE AN ABYSS. IL EST 11 H. 1/2. JE PARLE A 3 H. 30 AT THE SORBONNE. I HAVE DONE NOTHING - AND CANNOT THINK OF IT. All these days great congestion. The Abbé B. affair has kept me very busy. Solution exchange that I will tell you about. The devil D...c has genius. He's the devil himself [allusions no doubt to his fellow members of the Académie française Henri Brémond and René Doumic]. The geometer made a very close courtship on Wednesday with a reptilian Italian woman who had tempted me a few days before. As I approached this couple, she said, "He doesn't know how to talk about love." I murmured: "I hope he does!"... and quietly fainted... It's all teas, lunches and dinners. All my ladies are pouring their fine wines, their cherries, showing off their sole fillets and lamb barons. Reason culminates and fulminates [drawing of a lightning bolt]. Beautiful lightning! It falls... [written in the lower margin, head to tail:] I'm reopening my letter... Conference over. Many of those present are astonished. I think [it] worked well. The yellow tights were there with the Gorod tights. Phew! I sweat and collapse..."