Jehan RICTUS(1867-1933). 2 autograph MANUSCRITS,L'EnfançonneandLe Bel-Enfant, 4pages in-fol. plus title, and 5pages in-4 plus title, all mounted on tabs and bound in a small in-fol. half-cornered vellum volume. Two versions of a long poem, evoking a mother with her child, a touching but painful picture for whom "solitude and poverty" are the only children. The first manuscript, dated May 1909, is accompanied by the note: "fragment to be modified from the book in preparationL'Or et l'Amour", and features numerous corrections and variants in pencil. The second version - "copied for my excellent friend Ch. Gillet, to whom I owe this emotion", and dated "1909-1929! - takes these changes into account. This long poem of 118 lines, one of the few (if not the only?) non-slang poems by Rictus, was not published during the author's lifetime; it was collected in the 1946 edition of LeCœur populaire. "Comme c'est doux, comme c'est beau To see In the evening In some modest family Le Bel Enfant [L'Enfançonnetdans la 1èreversion] qu'on déshabille Little boy or little girl Before we put him to sleep. Comme c'est doux! comme c'est beau"... Former collection of Colonel Daniel SICKLES, V (November 20-21 1990), n°1977.