Émile ZOLA. L.A.S., Médan June 6, 1892, to a "dear colleague" [Léon Deschamps]; 2pages in-8. "Here I am, settled in the country, and a little unwell, which will prevent me, to my great regret, from being with you next Friday [for the La Plume banquet]. My winter has been so hard that I really need a good rest. Please offer my apologies to Coppée and Claretie, with whom I would have been so happy to spend the evening. As for the articles by Remacle and your collaborator, they interested me. But I certainly won't respond. What's the point? I've been answering for twenty-five years. I've come to believe that the only good answers are works of art. And, really, what can I say to these young people who are picking up Sarcey's old accusations? It would be without charm for me to take up with reactionary youth the ancient polemics I had with my elders. Perhaps one day I'll do it, but I'll need the time and health I don't have at the moment"... Attached is a L.A. (the signature has been cut out), March 9, 1892, [to Boyer d'Agen] (1p. in-12); he is "too little informed, too incompetent, to speak properly of the very beautiful and very high figure of Pope Leo XIII".