BLANC LOUIS: (1811-1882) French socialist politician and historian. A.L.S., Louis ...

BLANC LOUIS: (1811-1882) French socialist politician and historian. A.L.S., Louis Blanc, two pages, 8vo, Rue Royale Saint Honore, Paris, 29^th September 1876, to Pierre Henri de Lacretelle (‘Mon cher ami’), on black bordered mourning stationery (Blanc’s wife, Christina Groh, died in 1876), in French. Blanc commences his letter stating ‘Ce dont vous me felicitez est bien simple. J'ai dit ce que j'ai toujours pense, sur la mort de Louis XVI, et ce que j'avais dit deja dans mon livre’ (Translation: ‘What you are congratulating me on is quite simple. I said what I have always thought about the death of Louis XVI, and what I had already said in my book’) and continues to remark that his health is not what his correspondent believes, ‘Et puis, il est des blessures qui saignent toute la vie. Je vais faire un journal. La necessite d'echapper autant que possible aux tourments de mon coeur est, apres la consideration du bien public, ce qui m'a decide’ (Translation: ‘And then there are wounds that bleed for life. I will make a diary. The necessity of escaping as much as possible from the torments of my heart is, after consideration of the public good, what made me decide’), further adding that he does not receive Le Siecle and asking ‘Pourquoi ne m'avez-vous pas fait savoir qu'il publiait un roman de vous? Je desire fort le lire’ (Translation: ‘Why didn’t you let me know he was publishing a novel by you? I really want to read it’). With blank integral leaf. VG

Pierre Henri de Lacretelle (1815-1899) French humorous writer and politician, son of the French historian and journalist Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle (1766-1855).