[Guy de MAUPASSANT]. Léon FONTAINE (1816-1892) known as "Petit Bleu". 2 autograph manuscripts, Joseph Prunier and Petit Bleu (Souvenirs de jeunesse sur Maupassant); 4 pages in-4 and 22 pages in-fol. Very interesting account of Maupassant, written by his close friend Léon Fontaine, known as "Petit Bleu"; this precious account of their youth, the life of "Joseph Prunier" (Maupassant's nickname), and his decline and tragic end, probably written for a talk with Pierre Borel, must have served as the basis for the book Le Destin tragique de Guy de Maupassant, published under the names of Pierre Borel and "Petit Bleu" (Les Éditions de France, 1927). The first manuscript, which bears the title (paginated 1-4), is the beginning of a 39-page text [pages 5 to 39 appeared in our April 14, 2015 sale (no. 135)]. Petit Bleu agrees to tell Pierre Borel about his memories of Maupassant, and begins by evoking Étretat. The second, untitled manuscript runs to 22 pages; headings are entered in the margins; some passages include a sentence starter and then a reference to pages in the previous manuscript. - Étretat: "How did I meet Maupassant? But as one gets to know another on a beach between young people of the same age"... - Paris: "In Paris, Maupassant began by occupying a modest room on the ground floor of a house at 2 rue Moncey"... - Argenteuil: "From the very first days of spring, Guy's blood was boiling in his veins...". - Bezons: "Then they abandoned Argenteuil, went down the Seine, [...] they settled at Fournaise's"... - Sartrouville: "When the lightning success of Boule de suif had given Maupassant sudden notoriety"... - Maupassant's friends (Flaubert and Zola). - Maupassant's beginnings: "Maupassant's real literary debut was a tale by Joseph Prunier"... - Tragic destiny. - Maupassant and women. - The macabre in Maupassant....