COLETTE, Sidonie-Gabrielle (1873-1954)

COLETTE, Sidonie-Gabrielle (1873-1954)

Autograph letter signed « Votre Colette » to the Guillermet
S.l, [15th April 1946], 2 p. in-8° in blue ink on light blue paper
Central fold mark
Bottom margin unevenly trimmed by Colette’s hand, as she was accustomed to

Colette regrets not being able to send her latest novel L’Étoile Vesper to her friends in Beaujolais

« Mes chers Guillermets, cela fait mal et bien de lire une lettre comme celle de Made[leine] !
Venir ? impossible maintenant. En juin il va falloir que j’aille à Uriage¹, car je souffre vraiment un peu trop. On dit tant de bien de la nouvelle forme de traitement. Sept agneaux… Trente ans de mariage… Violettes et rosiers…
Je m’émeus devant votre féerie familiale et familière. Ne m’attendrissez pas trop ! Si au moins mon livre (L’étoile Vesper) avait paru à temps², vous l’auriez eu pour votre anniversaire. Mais je ne l’espère pas avant septembre ou octobre. Et me voilà les mains vides. C’est vous qui toujours les emplissez.
Je vous embrasse. Ne me gâtez pas trop, anges donateurs que vous êtes !
Votre Colette »

1- The spa town of Uriage-les-Bains, in the Isère region, where Colette was treated for acute arthritis.

2- The book was eventually published on 3 November 1946 by Éditions du Milieu du monde in Geneva.

The critics unanimously praised L’Étoile Vesper. Initially subtitled “Souvenirs”, Colette opens up discreetly, through carefully edited fragments, integrating some earlier texts. “The Etoile Vesper is to be put in the very first row, next to the masterpiece La Maison de Claudine. L’Etoile Vesper is the perfect masterpiece of style, sensibility and reason, when age comes” (Émile Henriot of the Académie française, Le Monde, 29 October 1947).

A humanist and philanthropist, Jean Guillermet (1893-1975) strove all his life to make Beaujolais known. Among other things, he published an annual Almanac extolling the qualities of this terroir and in particular its wine. Colette met Madeleine, wife of Jean Guillermet, in the summer of 1943. Madeleine immediately invited Colette to stay at her home in Limas near Villefranche-sur-Saône, in the heart of the Beaujolais vineyards. It was therefore very natural that Colette, a great epicurean and lover of good wines, became friends with the Guillermet couple. They maintained a regular correspondence until the writer’s death in 1954.