Charles BAUDELAIRE (1821-1867). Autograph manuscript, [Le Calumet de paix]; in Henry Wadsworth LONGFELLOW, The Song of Hiawatha (Boston, Ticknor and Fields, 1855); in-12, publisher's stamped brown percaline boards. Original 2nd edition of the Song of Hiawatha, used by Baudelaire. The translation of Henry W. LONGFELLOW's (1807-1882) poem, The Song of Hiawatha, was commissioned from Baudelaire in 1860 by American composer Robert STOEPEL. Robert STOEPEL (Berlin 1821-New York 1887), an American composer of Berlin origin and conductor of Wallack's Theatre, had composed an "Indian symphony" with chorus, soloists and narrator, The Song of Hiawatha, based on Longfellow's poem, premiered in Boston on February 21, 1859, with his wife Matilda Heron as narrator. Matilda HERON (1830-1877), an American actress of Irish origin, had become famous for her interpretation of Camille (1857), her own adaptation of La Dame aux camélias. On December 24, 1857, she married Robert Stoepel, from whom she separated in 1869. Stoepel's score of Hiawatha, Indian Legend was published in New York in 1863 (William Hall and Son). Stoepel hoped to have the work performed in France, and asked Baudelaire for a French version, for which the poet hoped to receive 1,500 francs, only part of which he was paid. Baudelaire first composed the poems Le Calumet de paix and L'Enfance d'Hiawatha, then elaborated a version "en prose poétique" of Hiawatha, an Indian legend. Le Calumet de paix was published in the Revue contemporaine of February 28, 1861, before being included in the 1868 edition of Les Fleurs du Mal. Robert Stoepel gave Baudelaire this volume of the Song of Hiawatha to work on. The work was annotated in pencil by Stoepel, to facilitate the translator's work. On the reverse of the title page, he has listed the 16 pieces; as the pages turn, he has crossed out with a pencil the passages he had not retained, and marked, with a few annotations, the passages to be translated. At the bottom of page 296, Matilda Heron noted: "Don't leave out a word of this. It is exquisite! Heron". On the flyleaf at the head of the volume, Baudelaire noted in ink: "écrire à Jeanne / à Camille Doucet / à Simon Raçon / à Fouques / à Laguéronnière"; and, a little below: "Hiawatha / V. Hugo / Peintres"; he then crossed out all these names in pencil (the pencil has since been erased). Baudelaire wrote, in pencil, on the last endpaper of the volume, ten verses from Le Calumet de paix, corresponding to the first 14 verses on page 16, marked at the top by Stoepel "Song". These are verses 61-70 of the Calumet de paix, with slight variations: "O my posterity, deplorable and cherished, [Listen to divine reason; It is Gitche manito, the master of life, Who speaks to you, he who in your homeland Has put bear, beaver, reindeer and buffalo. I've made fishing and hunting easy for you. Why does the hunter become a murderer? I populated the swamp with fowl; Why aren't you happy, indecisive sons? Why does every man hunt his neighbor?" [Tensions arose between the musician and the poet, who decided not to sign the libretto: "M. R. Stoepel having imposed insurmountable difficulties on me, such as, firstly, reducing to three hundred French verses a matter of eight hundred English verses, removing all the heroic and Homeric signs, so to speak, of the original, - secondly, translating into poetic prose the same canvas, deprived of all the advantages, - M. Stoepel will find it natural that I should demand that my name not appear on the libretto, despite all the care I have taken in doing so". Stoepel left abruptly for London, where he had his Hiawatha performed at Covent Garden on February 11, 13 and 15, 1861; Baudelaire tried in vain to obtain payment of the 400 francs Stoepel still owed him, and turned to the solicitor Hippolyte Marin, to whom he handed the work and his manuscripts as evidence]. Provenance - Robert Stoepel. - Charles Baudelaire. - Hippolyte Marin. Bibliography: - William T. Bandy, Claude Pichois, "Un inédit: Hiawatha. Légende indienne, adaptation de Charles Baudelaire", in Études baudelairiennes, II, 1971, pp. 7-68. - Michael V. Pisani, "Longfellow, Robert Stoepel, and an Early Musical Setting of Hiawatha (1859)", in American Music, vol. 16 (Spring 1998, pp. 45-86). - Baudelaire, Œuvres complètes (ed. Pichois), Pléiade, t.I, pp. 1279-1281; Œuvres complètes (ed. Guyaux-Schellino), Pléiade, t.II, pp. 1233-1235.