Books and Manuscripts

(Le Coudray, France, ca. 1901-03). One sheet folded to make four pages, 5 3/4 x 5 in. (146 x 127 mm). Autograph letter in French, signed by Jarry, likely to Thadée Natanson, founder and editor of French literary magazine, La Revue Blanche, concerning Jarry's contribution to the publication, "I came back yesterday and left without having had time to read the magazine. Will it be good to send tomorrow or Thursday the Speculations and a little bibliography from Coudray? If you agree I can send them directly to the printer. I will be back Friday or Saturday." Creasing from contemporary fold. This letter is reprinted on p. 551 in the third volume of Jarry's Oeuvres complètes (edited by Michel Arrivé, Paris, 1972). Letter includes a COA from the French Ministere charge de la Culture, ca. 2000.

In 1901, following the success his Ubu Roi (1896) and the Almanach du Père Ubu illustré (1899), Jarry (1873-1907) began publishing essays under the title "Spéculations," on French life and culture in the literary magazine La Revue Blanche. These essays would be Jarry's principal means of subsistence until the magazine ceased publication in 1903. He would continue writing articles in this series (later under the title "Gestes") in other French journals, including La Plume, L'Oeil, and Le Canard Sauvage, until 1905. The imaginative and satiric nature of these articles touched on all aspects of French life, from the political to the mundane and became an outlet for his pataphysical musings, and included essays on topics such as French trees, cannibalism, and photography.