Francis JAMMES (1868-1938). Autograph manuscript signed, L'É - Lot 444

Francis JAMMES (1868-1938). Autograph manuscript signed, L'Église habillée de feuilles, Orthez 1905; 52 sheets in a small in-4 notebook (22 x 16.5 cm), original blue half-percaline boards with corners. Complete manuscript of this poetic collection. The collection of poems L'Église habillée de feuilles (or rather, a "poem" in 38 parts) appeared in 1906 with the Société du Mercure de France. "Having returned to the Church, it is without effort that he finds [...] in the feeling of the distance between the infinite and the poor daily limitation the happy verses of L'Église habillée de feuilles" (H. Hargous). The manuscript shows numerous erasures and corrections, and variants with the edition. In the margins, Jammes has noted the dates of composition of the poems, from August 5 to November 1905. It comes from the library of André Gide, who has inscribed his name and address (10 Bd Raspail) on the verso of the first cover. Attached are 2 L.A.S. from Francis Jammes to André Gide, December 3 and 9, 1905 (4 and 3 1/2 pages in-8, one envelope), concerning the publication of L'Église habillée de feuilles, which Gide is to edit with Vallette: "What I wanted above all is for this edition to cost me nothing. [...] I want to have 100 copies and have nothing to pay"; Gide will have to choose the format, the paper, the printing, select the poems to be published in the Mercure and in Vers et Prose by Paul Fort... "How amiable you are, always the old narcissus only busy letting others mirror themselves. [...] Ah! my friend, perhaps my God would once have chosen you to leave your poor fishnets there and follow him. How tiresome are those men who think they can assign an espalier to a tree of your kind so that it can flourish divinely"... Former collections of André Gide (Gide sale, April 27-28, 1925, no. 169), Alain de Suzannet (bookplate), then Daniel Sickles (March 19, 1986, no. 79).