FRANCE ANATOLE: (1844-1924) French poet, journalist and novelist, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1921. A.L.S., Anatole France, two pages, small 8vo, n.p. (Paris), n.d. (28^th February 1895), to Henri Lavedan, with a small hand-stamped monogram at the head, in French. The poet writes a charming letter to his friend, commencing 'Je vous remercie de m'avoir envoye votre livre si aimable et si bon; je vous remercie de l´agréable honneur que vous m´avez fait en me dediant un de vos dialogues que j'aime tant. Cela est tellement superieur aux mimes d'Herondas et meme aux Syracusians qui sont pourtant un joli morceau' (Translation: 'I thank you for having sent me your book so pleasant and so good; I thank you for the pleasant honour you have done me by dedicating to me one of your dialogues which I love so much. This is so superior to the mimes of Herondas and even to the Syracusians which are nevertheless a pretty piece'). France continues to return the favour and 'offrir un des petits contes que je publie cette semaine en un volume, in 18, je sors (comme vous) Le puits de Ste. Claire' (Translation: 'offer one of the little tales which I am publishing this week in a volume, in 18, I go out (like you) Le puits de Ste. Claire') and in a postscript France invites Lavedan to have lunch with himself and Madame de Martel, the French writer who wrote under the pseudonym Gyp. Accompanied by the original envelope hand addressed by France and bearing a good wax seal to the verso featuring an impression of two ladies dancing whilst another, seated, watches them. Some very light, extremely minor staining, VG

Henri Lavedan (1859-1940) French dramatist and man of letters.