Lot n° 51
Estimation :
600 - 800
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 640EUR
Paul CLAUDEL (1868-1955). 4 L.A.S., 1 L.A. and 1 L.S., 1934- - Lot 51
Paul CLAUDEL (1868-1955). 4 L.A.S., 1 L.A. and 1 L.S., 1934-1938, to Pierre LHOSTE; 2 pages in-4 and 6 pages in-8, one envelope.
April 9, 1934. Claudel encourages Lhoste on the path of conversion: "The ontological proof of God" is misrepresented: "It is not a question of an idea of perfection or imperfection: it is a question of a universal and objective fact. On the other hand, it is not a defect, but rather a limitation which implies its complement. [...] the limited and contingent being implies and postulates the absolute and actual being". If his answer does not satisfy him, he can address himself to "my friend Jacques Maritain whose competence and charity are inexhaustible". He himself deals with the problem of Evil in a book that will soon be published Positions et Propositions tome II. Moreover, "if in order to become a Christian you ask that all the secrets of heaven and earth be clarified for you, if you have the pretension, like the sad Protestants, to summon God to your tribunal and to judge him in the light of your superb reason, you can wait a long time. [The facts are there, whether you like them or not. It is not a question of discussing them. It is a question of finding a way to salvation. And this way exists, it has been clearly and carefully indicated to us. [...] There is no other way than Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life"... He ends by wishing that "this ineffable Easter joy with which all true Christians are flooded at this moment touches your worried heart"...
December 22, 1934: he rejoiced over the conversion of Lhoste: "A conversion is a kind of miracle, a particular manifestation of divine goodness, the indication of a particular plan of Providence which chooses us as its agent.
December 20, 1937: he announces the forthcoming publication of Un Poète regarde la Croix at Gallimard - meditations on the Passion" and an "Introduction of a hundred pages to the work of Abbé Tardif de Moidrey (Léon Bloy's friend) on the Book of Ruth".
[1938] The NRF is going to publish Les Aventures de Sophie and he wrote "for Madame Ida Rubinstein two mimodramas, one with music by Honegger, the other with music by Darius Milhaud Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher and Le Festin de la Sagesse"... - March 3, 1938: in addition to the two works mentioned in the previous letter, he prepares a work of biblical exegesis L'Épée et le Miroir; Ida Rubinstein gives the 2 unpublished dramas at the Opera and the Comédie Française "gives in October L'Annonce faite à Marie directed by Copeau"...
Attached are an autographed business card from Claudel and 3 L.A.S. from Pierre Lhoste, at the bottom or on the back of which Claudel has written his reply: he lists the publications and performances planned for 1938; about the illustration of books, he replies: "Everything depends on the text. There are books that emanate from themselves, that emanate, so to speak, an illustration. There are others that provoke the reverie of the pencil like that of music"; to the question "Why does a people make a revolution?" he regrets having neither the time nor the competence to answer: "the people themselves who made it would be quite embarrassed to explain it!"
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