Description
BEAUTIFUL ENSEMBLE AROUND COLETTE AND BELGIUM
1 . Moving autograph manuscript signed Colette, written a year before her death, in which she talks about the importance of Brussels and Belgium in her life.
[1953], two erasures, 1/2 pp on two leaves, 20;5X13,5 cm, periwinkle blue paper.
“O Belgium of my childhood, Brussels rue Botanique, Uncle Eugène and Aunt Caroline! May they laugh at me, the French and Belgians who didn't experience the Brussels enchantments of my childhood! childhood delicious at an early age. I enjoyed them for a long time, and I adorned one of my honeymoons with them. So many Belgian friendships in my life, and how easy they have been for me... Pity me a little: Piérard has just died, and I will soon be eighty. And don't forget, dear Brussels, to love me as I love you, in the good humour of my good fi. Colette, 16 November. "
"Uncle Eugene"is Eugène Landoy (1816-1890), journalist and publisher, manager of the Kursaal d'Ostende, maternal uncle of Colette and author of some books which, according to certain sources, evoke the Belgian peregrinations of Gabrielle Sidonie.
In 1951, Colette wrote a Tribute to Louis Piérard (1948-1951) - Walloon socialist politician, journalist and art critic - in the magazine Savoir et Beauté: "The death of such a friend is bitter. I think sadly of Piérard".
This manuscript was sent to Jean Stevo who, in a tribute to Colette published by The National Review in June 1972, reproduces it in facsimile.
2. Special issue Colette
Le Point, Mulhouse, [May 1951], in 8, 48 leaves.
Texts by André Gide, Gérard Bauer, Colette, Darius Milhaud, Léon Werth, Claude Roy and Raymond Dumay. Numerous photographs reproduced in heliogravure.
Autograph signed letter from Colette to Jean Stevo :
“For Jean Stevo, too much Colette! but a lot of friendship".
Born in Brussels, Jean Stevo (1914-1974) studied at the Académie and the Institut before becoming a poet, essayist, journalist, painter and, above all, an engraver. A sailor aboard the Red Star Line, where he discovered Africa and the Americas, he returned with a collection of poems entitled "Le Vent du Large"He also produced numerous paintings and drawings. After taking an active part in the Resistance, in 1945 Stevo hosted interviews with a number of leading figures at the Institut National de la Radiodiffusion in his "Daily intellectual lifee". A friend of Cocteau, Malaparte and James Ensor, Stevo was probably put in touch with Colette through his uncle, Eugène Landoy, then manager of the Kursaal in Ostend.
3 . Jean Stevo
autograph manuscript signed ; "Tribute to Madame Colette",
[1972], 16 erasures, 6 staple-bound leaves, 205 x 175 mm, (paper?).
Beautiful tribute published after Colette's death in the Le Courrier du Littoral - number 32, August 1954 :
"Madame Colette, a member of the Academie Goncourt and the Académie Royale de Langue et de Littérature Française in Belgium, has lost not only one of the most sensitive and subtle writers of our time, but also a great and faithful friend of Belgium.". Stevo recalls Colette's words about her youth: "At six years old, when children my age were sighing "Paris", I was hoping "Brussels" and I was not saying "Bruqcelles" in the French way"..
"When I visited her some time ago, Madame Colette reminisced about the Brussels of yesteryear, the warm Belgian house, the cellar kitchen that smelt of gas, hot bread and coffee, and the lace curtains tied behind window boxes for passers-by to admire. As I talked about Ensor and Ostend, she reminded me of Uncle Eugène, Eugène Landoy, the writer and journalist. [...] Farewell Madame Colette. Your books live on. And also, believe it or not, loyal Belgian friendships. "
ATTACHED :
- Newspaper Le Courrier du Littoral, number 328 sheets, daily format, 575 x 410 m, containing the article by Jean Stevo "Tribute to Madame Colette, whose uncle ran the Kursaal in Ostend "Saturday 7 August 1954],
- La Revue Nationale, issue 431, [June 1972], Brussels, 16 f, in which Jean Stevo's article appears, ColetteIt includes a reproduction of Colette's autograph manuscript and my autograph letter to Jean Stevo.
