{"id":3235,"date":"2018-02-14T13:28:44","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T13:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/?page_id=3235"},"modified":"2022-08-09T18:45:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T18:45:03","slug":"letter-from-gaston-calmann-levy-to-marcel-proust-25-june-1918","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/letter-from-gaston-calmann-levy-to-marcel-proust-25-june-1918\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from\u00a0Gaston Calmann-L\u00e9vy to Marcel Proust,\u00a025 June 1918"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.frit.illinois.edu\/people\/mutidjo2\">Anne Mutidjo<\/a>, graduate student in French<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-3235 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-large'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_1.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"978\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_1-670x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-3237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_1-670x1024.jpg 670w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_1-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_1-768x1174.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_1.jpg 2004w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-3237'>\n\t\t\t\t1\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_2.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"986\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_2-665x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-3238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_2-665x1024.jpg 665w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_2-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_2-768x1182.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2018\/02\/proust_letters_08_lefebvre_104_001_2.jpg 1993w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-3238'>\n\t\t\t\t2\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Letter from\u00a0Gaston Calmann-L\u00e9vy to Marcel Proust,\u00a025 June 1918<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>CALMANN-L\u00c9VY<\/p>\n<p>PUBLISHERS<\/p>\n<p>3 AUBER STREET (IX<sup>th<\/sup>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Paris, June 25, 1918<\/p>\n<p>Dear Sir,<\/p>\n<p>I am back in Paris and I fear that you did not receive my letter dated May 15th <a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You will find a copy of it below and I would be very obliged if you would tell me what you decide regarding this matter\u00a0<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[3]<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cThe binder who was keeping <em>Les Plaisirs et les Jours<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[4]<\/a>, lacking space, asked me to take back all the unsold volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cI must confess that, out of a print run of 1500 copies, I still have 1100 of them in sheets and 71 bound, for a total of 1171 copies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cUnfortunately, the sale of this volume has, for a number of years already, completely stopped\u00a0<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[5]<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 13.3333px;\">\u00a0<\/span>and given current events, I cannot hope to see the situation improve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cSeeing no other option, and with great regret, I must attempt to sell these volumes at very low price: and, should you be interested in buying them back yourself instead, please let me know before I start making offers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cI could let you have them for 3 Fr[anc]s per copy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely yours,<\/p>\n<p>Gaston Calmann-L\u00e9vy<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a>\u00a0Letter catalogued as Proust-Series 1 \/ Lefebvre 104, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn1\">[2]<\/a> Proust did in fact receive Calmann-L\u00e9vy\u2019s earlier letter from 15 May 1918, as he mentions it in a letter to Madame Scheik\u00e9vitch on [28 May 1918] (<em>Corr<\/em>, vol. XVII, p. 262). That first letter from Calmann-L\u00e9vy has survived: it recently went up for auction in 2017 (<a href=\"http:\/\/fr.zone-secure.net\/39782\/453913\/#page=73\">Aguttes, Les collections Aristophil, vente inaugurale, Paris, 20 December 2017, lot 47<\/a>). Proust appears to have left it unanswered until he received this second letter.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn2\">[3]<\/a>\u00a0Proust, offended, responded to Calmann-L\u00e9vy with an indignant, nineteen-page long letter on 26 June 1918. That letter, which remains unpublished, was sold at auction in 2014 (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sothebys.com\/en\/auctions\/ecatalogue\/2014\/livres-et-manuscrits-pf1403\/lot.117.html\">Sotheby\u2019s, Livres et manuscrits, Paris, 19 June 2014, lot 117<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn3\">[4]<\/a>\u00a0<em>Les Plaisirs et les Jours<\/em> [Pleasures and Days], from 1896, was Proust\u2019s first book, a collection of short stories and poems. It had a mixed reception: critics overall wrote positive reviews, but the book\u2019s luxury format and price, \u201cnearly four time the normal price for a book,\u201d proved to be \u201ca publishing and public relations fiasco\u201d (see Carter, p. 214-216).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> In his lengthy response, Proust contests Calmann-L\u00e9vy\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Written a few months after the menacing <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spring_Offensive\">1918 Spring Offensive<\/a> of the Germans through the Northern French region of the Somme, this letter from the publisher Gaston Calmann-L\u00e9vy to Marcel Proust illustrates not only the unreliability of communications during the war (as Calmann-L\u00e9vy imagines his earlier letter might somehow not have reached Proust), but also the difficult conditions that the war imposed on editors and authors alike.<\/p>\n<p>Calmann-L\u00e9vy was a renowned publishing house created in 1841 or 1842, and directed by the brothers L\u00e9vy. Authors such as Sand, Hugo, and Baudelaire were published there. It was only following a recommendation from the writer Anatole France (then much more famous than the young Proust) that Calmann-L\u00e9vy agreed to publish <em>Les Plaisirs et les Jours<\/em> in 1896. This first book was not the success Proust had hoped for <a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When Calmann-L\u00e9vy proposes to sell the remaining copies of <em>Les Plaisirs et les Jours<\/em> for only 3 francs each in 1918, Proust is livid. He responds to the publisher in a lengthy nineteen-page letter, pointing out that the volume included several illustrations and original watercolors from Madeleine Lemaire and a preface written by Anatole France himself, all of which had been executed free of charge. Proust reminds the publisher that he never earned royalties on the book <a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref6\">[7]<\/a>, and that he himself buys about five copies a year, so that the sale of these volumes cannot have stalled (Proust liked to give copies of this first publication to his friends and acquaintances, as we see for instance in the post-script to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/letter-from-marcel-proust-to-lionel-hauser-27-august-1915\/\">this 1915 letter to Lionel Hauser<\/a>).\u00a0Proust contests the insinuation that his book had been bad business for the publishing house. In fact, he writes to Calmann-L\u00e9vy that the mixed reception of this early work has been more harmful to his own reputation as a writer:\u00a0\u201cfor many years it made me look like an amateur\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[8]<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In hindsight, it is ironic to see Calmann-L\u00e9vy write that he \u201ccannot hope to see the situation improve\u201d: just a year later in 1919, Proust would win the Prix Goncourt, and his fame, along with interest in earlier work, would increase greatly.<\/p>\n<p>In his response to Calmann-L\u00e9vy, Proust gives us insight into his future projects. He mentions a more affordable upcoming reprint of <em>Les Plaisirs et les Jours<\/em>, which he only wants to make available to the public after his new publisher, the <em>Nouvelle Revue fran\u00e7aise<\/em>,<em>\u00a0<\/em>finishes printing \u201c<em>Swann<\/em>\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[9]<\/a>, a process that is being delayed because \u201cthe war is slowing down the printing\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"#_ftn10\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[10]<\/a>. This element is not only an illustration of the complications brought about by the conflict; it also highlights how the war shaped Proust\u2019s publishing strategies.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a>\u00a0See Carter,\u00a0<em>Marcel Proust, A Life<\/em>, chapter 7 (p. 203-231) for more information on <em>Les Plaisirs et les Jours<\/em> and its reception.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn5\">[7]<\/a> This is confirmed by a September 1897 letter from Proust\u2019s friend Robert de Flers: \u201cRegarding your [Proust\u2019s] royalties, Mr. Gaston [Calmann-L\u00e9vy] and Mr. Hubert say that no contract was made between you and them, only a mutual agreement that you would only receive monetary compensation the day the publishing costs would be completely covered\u201d (\u201cQuant \u00e0 la question de tes droits d\u2019auteurs M. Gaston et M. Hubert disent qu\u2019il n\u2019y a eu aucun trait\u00e9 pass\u00e9 entre vous mais une convention tacite en vertu de laquelle tu n\u2019aurais droit \u00e0 quelque r\u00e9mun\u00e9ration p\u00e9cuniaire que le jour o\u00f9 les frais de l\u2019\u00e9dition seraient enti\u00e8rement couverts\u201d). See <em>Corr<\/em>., vol. II, p. 218. Translation by Anne Mutidjo.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn5\">[8]<\/a> On the question of whether the book was \u201cbad business,\u201d see Proulx, p. 242-244.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn3\">[9]<\/a>\u00a0Proust often referred to the whole novel as \u201c<em>Swann<\/em>,\u201d but it is possible that he is here talking about <em>\u00c0\u00a0l\u2019ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower]<\/em>, which finished printing at the end of November 1918, after the armistice (Carter, p. 679).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref10\" name=\"_ftn3\">[10]<\/a>\u00a0\u201cLa guerre en rend l\u2019impression plus lente.\u201d Proust, letter to Gaston Calmann-L\u00e9vy, 26 june [1918]. Excerpts of Proust\u2019s letter are transcribed in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sothebys.com\/en\/auctions\/ecatalogue\/2014\/livres-et-manuscrits-pf1403\/lot.117.html\">2014\u00a0sale catalog<\/a> and in Pyra Wise, \u201cLes ventes,\u201d\u00a0<em>Bulletin d\u2019informations proustiennes<\/em>\u00a045 (2015), p. 210-211.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Works cited<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Carter, William C. <em>Marcel Proust, A Life.<\/em> New Haven:\u00a0Yale University Press, 2000.<\/p>\n<p>Proulx, Fran\u00e7ois. \u201c\u2018Irregular\u2019 Kin: Madeleine Lemaire and Reynaldo Hahn in <em>Les Plaisirs et les Jours<\/em>.\u201d <em>Proust and the Arts. <\/em>Eds. C. McDonald and F. Proulx. Cambridge University Press, 2015. 232-251.<\/p>\n<p>Proust, Marcel. <em>Correspondance<\/em>.\u00a0Ed. Philip Kolb. Paris: Plon (21 vols.), 1970-1993.<\/p>\n<p>Wise, Pyra.\u00a0\u201cLes ventes.\u201d <em>Bulletin d\u2019<\/em><em>informations<\/em> <em>proustiennes<\/em> 45 (2015),\u00a0201-230.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/2018\/02\/19\/proust-and-the-great-war-part-2\/\">Back to list of letters<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Anne Mutidjo, graduate student in French Letter from\u00a0Gaston Calmann-L\u00e9vy to Marcel Proust,\u00a025 June 1918\u00a0[1] CALMANN-L\u00c9VY PUBLISHERS 3 AUBER STREET (IXth) Paris, June 25, 1918 Dear Sir, I am back in Paris and I fear that you did not receive my letter dated May 15th [2]. You will find a copy of it below and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":320,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3235","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3235"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5197,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3235\/revisions\/5197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}