CP 03780/en
Marcel Proust to Gaston Gallimard [21 or 22 May 1919]
(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)
Dear friend
Your letter[2] does not persuade me at all and what saddens me more is that mine (you are undoubtedly speaking of the letter before last[3] because I do not see what in the last[4] could have had this effect, nor indeed, I must say, in the one before last) "disheartens" you. All I want is for you to be happy and hence it is me who is disheartened. You are playing with words when you say that you are a publisher, not a printer [5]. Because one of the principal duties of a publisher is the printing of his books. You have been a theatre director in America and I think that it is to that, much more than to the distinction that you make between printer and publisher, that I owe the most botched publication of l’Ombre des Jeunes filles en fleurs imaginable. Let us admit for an instant that all the faults are mine, there are proofreaders for a reason. You tell me that you have been from printer to printer, I thank you for it and that is an embarrassment to me, but after all that it has just meant going back to the same one, since it is the same name that was given to me in December when we left Semeuse[6]. He may well have admirable qualities, but I beg you to keep a copy of the pages that he has extracted from À l’Ombre des Jeunes filles en fleurs for the Nouvelle Revue Française. We will read them one evening together one evening at the Ritz or at mine and you will see what a miracle worker he is. Grant me this pleasure and I promise you a real “stupefaction”[7]. My dear friend and publisher, you seem to reproach me for my editing techniques[8]. I realise that they complicate everything (not in the case of the Revue, at any rate!). But when you asked me to leave Grasset to come to you, you knew this, because you came with Copeau, who before Grasset’s redrafted proof, exclaimed, “But this is a new book!” I am apologising to you in two ways, the first by saying that all moral quality requires material change. As you have the goodness to find richness that appeals to you in my writing, you can recognise that it is precisely due to this overindulgence that I reinfuse it by living, which physically translates into these additions. You can also recognise that, just as you gave me a great demonstration of friendship in asking me for my books, it is also in friendship that I gave them to you. When I sent you the Swann manuscript and you refused it, it may have been to my advantage that the brilliance of your publishing house added a little lustre to my book. Since it appeared in Grasset’s publishing house, I don’t know how, but it managed to get lots of supporters, so much so that I could publish the following parts through Grasset without fearing that they would go unnoticed. I did as I was told by taking them away from him and leaving them with you, out of a feeling of friendship, as did you. Alas, you left, I haven’t stopped receiving books from the others (for there are publishers that have printers, you would believe it if you saw the pile of uncut works I have received which are in my bedroom) but no page proofs. I think that they will arrive. I no longer have the same strength and that is maybe why I, in turn, will be a bit slow. Provided that everything will be published in my lifetime, that would be good, and if things were to turn out[9] differently, I have left all my notebooks numbered for you to take, and I count on you to publish them in their entirety[10]. I have not yet reached the other points of your letter. But fatigue stops me, and I leave you with a handshake.
Affectionately
Marcel Proust
I have still not received my royalties from Grasset. I’m counting on you.
The moment when this letter should have left, I received a charming word from Grasset asking me to give him a first extract from my book for a literary review with a circulation of 200,000 copies that he founded with Jean Dupuy. I am going to tell him that it is impossible, since my book will be published shortly[11]. As a matter of fact, I found June to be a detestable month, but it is better not to delay another day.
Notes
- ↑ This letter's postscript dates from the moment Proust received Grasset's letter of 22 May 1919 (CP 03779; Kolb, XVIII, no. 98); since Proust says that his letter "should have left" it must have been written on 21 or 22 May 1919. [PK]
- ↑ Letter from Gallimard, 13 May [19]19 (CP 05456; MP-GG, no. 95), in which Gallimard says he is "dismayed" by "the last [letter] you wrote me". Proust must have accused him of neglecting the printing of his books, because Gallimard defends himself: "if I could show you the file of correspondence concerning your books you would see that I am entirely innocent." [FL]
- ↑ Letter has not been found. [PK]
- ↑ Letter has not been found. [PK]
- ↑ Gallimard wrote: "Unfortunately for both of us I am not the printer. I have to deal with all of these people who promise but don't deliver, and who themselves are faced with all the difficulties caused by the war and which are still not resolved. I telegraph them, beg them, telephone them, they tell me that there is a strike, nothing can be sent out, it is impossible to find decent materials, there is a scarcity of printing type; in the end I get cross, I take back the manuscript to give it to someone else who promises to do better and then the same story starts all over again". (Letter from Gaston Gallimard, 13 May [19]19: CP 05456; MP-GG, no. 95) [FL]
- ↑ This refers to Louis Bellenand, printer at Fontenay (see Kolb, XVIII, no. 40 or Lettres, no. 488). [PK, FL]
- ↑ In this regard see the letter to Jacques Rivière of [Monday 19 May 1919] (CP 03777; Kolb, XVIII, no. 96) where Proust explains his lateness in sending the corrected proofs of the extract of À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs for the NRF because of the peculiar way that the printer had set it out: not understanding things or feeling the need to insert certain extra passages, placing them no matter where, even in the middle of a sentence, or even a word! With the result that Proust was forced to cut out parts of the text and glue back the pieces in the correct order. [FL]
- ↑ Gallimard in fact pointed out to Proust that the composition of his manuscripts was very difficult, which he realized when he went to Bellenand's (close to Paris) to follow the composition process at first hand. And he suggested that it would be wiser to have the manuscript typed in a clean version rather than sending the cahiers strewn with multiple crossings out and additions directly to the printer. (Letter of 13 May [19]19: CP 05456; MP-GG, no. 95). [FL]
- ↑ We have corrected Kolb's misreading, "arrivait" [arrived], to "advenait" [turned out]. [NM]
- ↑ This comment seems to indicate that, at this date, Proust had already prepared a complete version of the end of his novel, from Sodome et Gomorrhe to Temps retrouvé, contained in his "numbered cahiers", those being Cahiers I to XX, known as the "mise au net" [fair copy]. So it was therefore as early as spring 1919 (and not as late as 1922, as claimed by Céleste Albaret), that he wrote the word "Fin" on the last page of Cahier XX. Proust had intended entrusting his authority for posthumous publication to Gallimard as early as 1916 (see his letter to Gallimard [shortly after 22 October 1916], CP 04449; Kolb, XIX, no. 412), and he was to say it again in 1921 (letter of [22 or 23 March 1921], CP 04548; Kolb, XX, no. 70). [NM]
- ↑ See Grasset's letter of 22 May [19]19 (CP 03779; Kolb, XVIII, no. 98). Proust misrepresented the words of his old editor by claiming that he was asking him for a "first extract from [his] book." No doubt he was trying to put pressure on Gallimard by suggesting that in the case of an extended delay he could well give Grasset some long unpublished extracts from À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. [FL]
- ↑ Translation notes: The translation of stupéfaction as "stupefaction" in quotation marks aims to capture what may have been a very deliberate word choice in the original, given the foolishness of the incident to which Proust refers immediately before.
- ↑ Contributors: Fduncan, Cblackburn, Erichards, Shoei, Francesca, Georgiat, Adirubbo, Jasonmcbride, Chiarawilliams, Ecarapetis, Yorktaylors.