CP 03979/en
Louis de Robert to Marcel Proust [Thursday 11 December 1919]
(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)
Bravo, dear Marcel.
I did not believe in your success because I was relying on the state of mind that had so far influenced the votes. But this state of mind represented mainly by Mirbeau and Descaves could not prevail against you since Mirbeau is no more and - as I read in this morning's newspapers - Descaves is ignoring the Goncourt Academy [2].
The surprise increases my joy. You are now famous. But you were almost already famous. And I did not know it. I live so solitary that I did not know that everyone had read Swann's Way at the time I wrote in the Roman d'une Comédienne "this little-known book"(!)[3] You must have smiled to find me so ill-informed.
Vous triomphez d'une tradition détestable qui faisait du prix Goncourt une prime à la pauvreté. La pauvreté est respectable, j'en sais quelque chose. Mais enfin quand il s'agit de juger une œuvre d'art, est-ce que ces questions comptent ? Que l'auteur soit pauvre ou riche, qu'est- ce que cela fait ?
De tout cœur vôtre,
Louis de Robert
PS – Je n'ai plus votre adresse. Donnez-la-moi[4].