Bidspirit auction | [VARIOUS AUTOGRAPHS, LETTERS, & DOCUMENTS]

[VARIOUS AUTOGRAPHS, LETTERS, & DOCUMENTS] - GEORGES SIMENON (1903–1989) - A remarkable collection of letters and personal memorabilia - GEORGES SIMENON (1903–1989) GEORGES SIMENON ARCHIVE: A remarkable collection of letters and personal memorabilia This extensive archive constitutes one of the most important private collections of Simenon letters, manuscripts, photographs and personal memorabilia to have appeared on the market in recent decades. It sheds light on many fascinating and often unexpected aspects of the life and personality of the celebrated Belgian writer, whose name remains inextricably linked with his most famous creation, Inspector Jules Maigret, but whose literary achievement extends far beyond the Maigret novels to the psychologically penetrating works he termed his romans durs. 1. A SELECTION OF RARE AND EARLY LETTERS LONG AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, sent to “Monsieur Descaves”. On headed paper of the Hotel Martinez, Cannes. Dated 8 March 1934. “The fog had prevented me from coming to dinner with you at my friend [Maurice de] Vlaminck’s, and now the sunshine, this time, will not prevent us from getting together at least on Easter Day. André, in fact, wants to put on a sketch [...] at the Ambassadeurs in Cannes, where I shall be on Easter Monday, and [...] I was weak enough to agree. [...] Here there is respite from artificial life, a world without smells and without cares. It is very close to the Casino de Paris, but I prefer to keep myself apart. I am more often in the kitchens [...] than in the smoking room. This could provide the starting point for a novel. In any case, I shall begin one tomorrow or the day after, and another later for Paris-Soir. I have received offers from the Petit Parisien [...]” (original in French). The letter was written a few months before Simenon left Genoa with his first wife, Tigy, aboard the schooner Araldo. During his long Mediterranean voyage, Simenon kept a shipboard diary which was published in instalments under the title Mare Nostrum. Georges Simenon and Marcel Prévost Marcel Prévost, naturalist novelist and member of the Académie Française, occupied a prominent position in French cultural life in the early twentieth century. Simenon addresses him as “Maître”. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, sent to Marcel Prévost. Undated [but 1930s]. “My dear and unjust friend [...] Passing through Nice for the trial [...] I tried to see you, made enquiries [...] and telephoned the artistic circle. I rushed to the address they gave me, which turned out to be an old one; regretfully I gave up and left again half an hour after the verdict because I am in the middle of a novel. That changes nothing. I would have been delighted to see you and talk with you, but you are impossible to find and nobody knew where you were [...]” (original in French). AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, sent to Marcel Prévost. In green ink, on headed paper. With stamp of the Bibliothèque Marcel Prévost La Roche. Undated [but 1935–36]. “Here is the end. I am impatient to have your opinion and, when you have a moment, to come and talk to you. Once again I have thought that my best novel of the year is the one about the Reine de France, and I await the verdict [...]. It goes without saying that I leave you entirely free to make whatever changes to my text you consider necessary for the Reine” (original in French). AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, sent to Marcel Prévost. On headed paper. With stamp of the Bibliothèque Marcel Prévost La Roche. Undated [1937]. “Forgive me once again for troubling you in this way. I am sending you herewith the manuscript of the novel La Soif. It is a little dirty, because it has already undergone its confrontation at Gallimard. But it will not appear for another seven or eight months (I have four on the market!) [...]. I am sending my latest novels to Monsieur Henri [...]”. Ceux de la soif, one of Simenon’s so-called romans durs, appeared in instalments in the Brussels newspaper Le Soir between 12 December 1936 and 1 January 1937. A year later it was published by Gallimard. At Simenon’s request, the manuscript was sold at auction in 1943 for the benefit of prisoners of war. Simenon’s Pipe TYPED LETTER WITH AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURE IN RED INK, sent to Gaston Picard. On headed paper. Dated 1 August 1938. “I light my pipe when I get up. I smoke while working because I am working. I smoke after working because I am no longer working. I smoke while preparing the next day’s chapter because I am preparing my chapter. Fortunately one cannot yet smoke while eating or sleeping [...]”. Simenon began smoking a pipe when he was still a boy, at around thirteen. He became an inveterate smoker. He owned three hundred pipes, all briar, each associated with an important occasion or a pleasant event in his life. For Inspector Maigret, his most famous character, the pipe likewise became a distinguishing feature. TYPED LETTER SIGNED, sent to Georges Grimmer. On Georges Simenon, Shadow Rock Farm,