First published 22 October 1920.
To Jean Ajalbert:
"To Monsieur Jean Ajalbert. In respectful admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Roger Allard:
"To Monsieur Roger Allard, affectionately, Marcel Proust".
To Gabriel Astruc [?]:
"Dear friend, it the Guermantes were too slow to understand that it was necessary to go to the Côté de chez Swann not the Côté de l'Opéra to hear incomparable music. Also nobody knew Mussorgsky, all the geniuses that you revealed from Maurice Denis, Vuillard to Bourdelle. Now the Guermantes, pell-mell with the Verdurins, go In Search of Lost Time. I have faith, I believe, that if not for me, at death's door, but for you, Time will be found again. Marcel Proust."
To Jacques-Émile Blanche:
"To Monsieur Jacques Emile Blanche, his old and faithful admirer and grateful friend, for whom a 41 degree fever over the past few days prevents him from saying more. Affectionately, Marcel Proust."
To Florence Blumenthal: (Oct 1921)
"To Madame Blumenthal. With respectful and admiring homage.
Here, Madame, is this first edition of Guermantes I that I have
kept for you for a year and which is impossible to get hold of today. I
tried to find one for Guiche but failed. You were in America. So I could
not send it sooner. Since then Guermantes II has appeared, but
accompanied with Sodome et Gomorrhe. So I dare not send you that
other volume, knowing how little favourable the Americans are towards this
sort of clinical study."
To Jacques Boulenger:
"To Jacques Boulenger. As a token of gratitude. His friend (if that is not indiscreet). Marcel Proust."
To Louis Brun:
"Habent sua fata libelli [Books have their destiny]
To M. Louis Brun.
The destiny of this one was for me to find M. Louis Brun once again on the
Guermantes way whom I had met with great pleasure on Swann's way.
Marcel Proust."
To Henry Céard:
"To Monsieur Henry Céard.
As a token of my respectful, grateful and profound admiration.
Marcel Proust."
To Comtesse de Chevigné:
"Madame, it is true that by wanting a book in which there is so much of you, to be on special paper and in a copy fit for you, I have lost much time. And my moribundity having returned I have no longer been able to trouble myself with all this business about printing. Nevertheless it seems to me that the present (in the sense of the gift) was to have created this book out of you. And its material covering, and whether it was bought by me or by you, matters little: you disagree with me on this. So here is a copy (Alas, there are none left but horrible ones, but I will keep looking in any case) since you attach more importance to quantity and paper than than to sweetness of heart. The hellishness of misunderstandings, but which stem from your facility for falling into traps, stems from the word snobbishness that was rejected as long as twenty years ago, just like the "Clerical Peril" etc... To how many duchesses have I not replied when they exclaim: "But she is no duchesse, she is a woman from the world of petty Jewish salons", have I not replied [sic]: "She has more breeding than you". A strange snobbishmess that consists in visiting nobody (all this is too tedious to explain here). In all reality I had to show that Places and People lose something when we get close to them. Balbec for the place, Guermantes for the people. I am too weary to explain to you with what logic I have developed all this, which the great Danish newsaper, the Politiken, has recently understood perfectly, but you have been completely taken in by the petty side. I prefer to maintain the better position albeit with infinite difficulty. Your respectful Marcel Proust."
To Jean Cocteau:
"[...] It's you, my dear Jean, at Larue's [...]"
To Colette:
"To Madame Colette. In homage of admiration and deep gratitude (I can't write more I have a fever of 41 etc) your respectful friend. Marcel Proust."
To Benjamin Crémieux:
"Dear sir, Thank you for mentioning my name in the last N.R.F. No doubt you won't understand these words, written at a moment when I am in no state to reply to very long articles. But your praise was precious to me, because ever since my Preface to Paul Morand I thought there had been a misunderstanding between us which pained me. A remark that makes my gratitude even more unintelligible. I will explain myself face to face if I get a bit better and am able to see you one day. Marcel Proust."
To Léon Daudet:
[Written after the printed dedication to Daudet: "to the author of [...] so many masterpieces and incomparable friend in testament to my gratitude and admiration."]
"... to which I add a tenderness which I dared not express
in the printed dedication in case you accused me of over familiarity. But
in these additional lines that will only be read by you I want to shake
your hand. Marcel Proust."
At the top of the page he also wrote:
"I beg you to place my respectful gratitude at the feet of Mme Léon
Daudet. Marcel Proust."
To Lucien Daudet:
"My dear little one, for some time now there has been a misunderstanding between us which pains me because you are completely mistaken about me. I do at least take some sort of pleasure from a clear conscience, and an unacknowledged devotion which is not disagreeable. Please excuse me for not writing to you sooner but I have been very very ill. Affectionately yours, Marcel."
To Lucien Descaves:
"To Monsieur Lucien Descaves. As a token of admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Fernand Divoire:
"To Monsieur Fernand Divoire, as a token of friendship, Marcel Proust."
To Pierre Drieu la Rochelle:
"To Monsieur Drieu la Rochelle. As a token of profound sympathy. Marcel Proust."
To Jacques Duval:
"To Monsieur Jacques Duval as a token of gratitude. Marcel Proust."
To Robert de Flers:
"To my dear Robert with all my admiring gratitude and deep affection that a fever of 41 degrees is preventing me from expressing this evening. Tenderly, his admirer and friend, Marcel."
To Gaston Gallimard:
"To my dear Gaston, I hardly suspected when I saw you for the first time, "Rich alone with your tranquil eyes", that I would one day owe you so much gratitude, and the absurd fidelity that this real and sometimes imaginary cuckold has to the NRF. Affectionately, Marcel Proust."
To Henri Gans:
"To you my dear friend with all my ardent affection. Did you know that I have just been very ill? (40 degrees of fever). I hope that during the same period Madame your mother has fully recovered. It would bring me much pleasure if you could reassure me. I haven't done anything about the things you told me but fatigue has prevailed. Your very affectionate and devoted, Marcel Proust."
To Jean Giraudoux:
"To Monsieur Jean Giraudoux. (A fever of 41 degrees does not leave me free to write to you this evening as you did to Pavel on his return from Switzerland with boxes of sea-shells). But you won't miss anything by having to wait. You know already my feelings of admiring friendship towards you. Marcel Proust."
To Armand Duc de Guiche:
"Dear Friend, what a nuisance! I notice that the second copy
of Guermantes II is the same as the one you have which I have
just dedicated to you. Now, at last, the nth time! there is no doubt that
it is really Guermantes I. With all the friendship of your
devoted and grateful Marcel Proust.
Vous reverrai-je ! Et quel ? (Verlaine)."
To Reynaldo Hahn:
"To my dearest affection and admiration in this life. Fraternally, Marcel."
To Lionel Hauser:
"My dear Lionel, I see with dismay that sick or well I no
longer exist for you. If I am sending you a poor edition it is because the
N.R.F. haven't done any more firsts, and if I am sending it so late it is
because I have searched in vain to get you their new and diabolical
invention, an original edition.
I have been struggling for a month or more with the Warburg accounts where
I do not understand a thing. But don't think for a moment that that is why
I'm sending you my book, firstly because I don't want to disturb you with
any requests for advice,and secondly because I have never written a book,
however bad it might be, without sending it to you, in homage of faithful
and grateful friendship. Your Marcel Proust."
To Abel Hermant:
"To Monsieur Abel Hermant. As a token of gratitude and admiration and affection, that a 41 degree fever has rendered a little abridged. Marcel Proust."
To Madame Lemarié:
"Dear Madame Lemarié, since you haven't replied to me I assume you haven't had my letters (it is true that I have already moved apartments three times). But Les Jeunes filles en fleurs have been returned to me. I will send the others and the postage costs to your Paris address. I have a 40 degree fever but I don't want you to thinks that our slight disagreements have weakened my grateful friendship for my young, almost childlike, collaborator. If I didn't have such a high fever I would tell you at greater length. Your respectful friend, Marcel Proust."
To Hugues Le Roux:
"In memory of "Lost Time" alas, of happy times, in admiration of his talent, in compassion for his pain, I offer this book with the regret that the terrible state of my health prevents me from writing to him at greater length. Marcel Proust."
To André Lhote:
"To Monsieur André Lhote. As a token of my admiration. Marcel Proust."
To the Comte and Comtesse de Maugny:
"To Madame the Comtesse deMaugny and to my very dear Clément, my respectful homage to the first, all my tenderness to the second (who is also the first). Your admiring and devoted Marcel Proust."
To François Mauriac:
"To M. François Mauriac, in affectionate admiration [...]"
To John Middleton Murry:
"To Middleton Murry esq. As a token of profound affinity."
To Madame de Noailles:
"To Madame Comtesse de Noailles. To my dear preferred
admiration which has only increased since those days in Amphiron when she
was a young girl, and since those that followed in which she wrote verses
that I don't know why she allowed to fall without gathering them up, like
the "pollen of roses"
Our love is a vase brimming with gold or spikenard
That we both carry trembling lest we spill it
Our young fervour and our effusions
Will come to swell the useless sleep of things.
But what matters that to the intoxicated spring of rebirth
It seems to me that that was never included in any collections. And now I
no longer see you. But I know at least that the great poets of the
nineteenth century are continued and that the Dead live in a woman of
genius.
Your respectful admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Charles Régismanset:
"As a token of profound sympathy to Monsieur Régismanset. Marcel Proust."
To Madame Marie de Régnier [Gérard d'Houville]:
"To Madame Gérard d'Houville
"or rather to you" (dedication from Gérard d'Houville to Mme de Béarn),
adorable queen of the Canaques.
Your admiring and respectful subject
Marcel Proust."
To Jacques Rivière:
"To Monsieur, Jacques Rivière. His grateful friend who dare not send him a copy in the certainty of it being refused. But since it is in book form, in tender admiration, Marcel Proust."
To Henri Rochat:
"To my dear friend
To Henri,
For when we go together “In Search of Lost Time”
His
Marcel"
image
To Henri Rochat:
"To Henri Rochat.
'Astonishing voyager, what noble stories
We read in your eyes deep as the oceans
Let us open the casket of your rich memory.'
(Baudelaire)
'Absence is the greatest of ills
Not for you, cruel one, but the one who stays.'
(La Fontaine)
Marcel Proust."
To André Salmon:
"To Monsieur André Salmon. As a token of friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Jean Schlumberger:
"To Monsieur Jean Schlumberger. In memory of Mur de Verre. Marcel Proust."
To Paul Souday:
"Dear Sir, I will write to you, I have a new, incomprehensible illness, this evening I have a 41 degree fever, just like the last three nights, I hardly have the strength to repeat to you my deep gratitude and admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Madame Straus:
"To Madame Emile Straus with repectful homage and grateful admiration."
To Gustave Tronche:
"To J. E. [sic] Tronche, who I have embroiled in my squabble with the N.R.F. but for whom, in spite of everything, I have maintained my gratitude and affection. Marcel Proust."
To Madame Jean Gustave Tronche:
"To Madame J.G. Tronche. With respectful and admiring homage from one who loves her husband very much. Marcel Proust."
To Paul Valéry:
"To Monsieur Paul Valéry who, in Le Cimitière Marin, has set abstraction in a fluid concrete, as no one else had done until then. Admiring homage, Marcel Proust."
To Jean Valmy-Baisse:
"To Monsieur Valmy-Baisse With grateful respects. Marcel Proust."
To Fernand Vandérem:
"To Monsieur Fernand Vandérem. As a token of very deep gratitude. Marcel Proust."
To Jean-Louis Vaudoyer:
"To Monsieur Jean-Louis Vaudoyer. Dear friend, I fear that you haven't received 'Guermantes'. Half of my copies have disappeared. And your friendship is so benevolent that you would have written me a note. This time I am going to bring you a copy of my book. Because it is my last first edition and if this one goes astray again I wouldn't dare to send you a second edition, now that I know you are such a bibliophile. If this week I have two or three Beethoven performers to come and play the 14th quartet at my bedside (people who will be very late because it seems these are the last of the musicians), would you come? If my health makes it possible I will actually try, after years of silence, to hear an hour of music. And that piece is something that we have listened to together with a dear and venerated One We Have Lost, though ever present. Your admiring friend, Marcel Proust."
To Maurice Vernes:
"To Monsieur Maurice Vernes with all my best wishes and regret that an extreme aggravation of the state of my health has prevented me from maintaining closer relations with him. Marcel Proust."
To Camille Vettard:
"To Monsieur Camille Vettard. Dear Monsieur, I have just
been close to death and unfortunately can't see my way to return to life.
But my first letter (instead of the hundreds and hundreds of accumulated
replies) will be a dedication, this one, to tell you that I frequently
think about you, in a great union of ideas, full of gratitude. Didn't I
write to you on the subject of the things you said about Wells, etc? With
my warmest best wishes, Marcel Proust.
I would be very interested (if I was capable of understanding them that
is) to hear which are those scientific books that have revived your
interest."
To an unknown recipient:
"Monsieur, I put a long dedication in Guermantes II, when it should have been the other way round. I have tried to send you copies that are not such late editions, but alas I could not find first editions, being long out of print. Your grateful and devoted Marcel Proust."
Other known dedicatees: Sydney Schiff, René Boylesve, Robert de Montesquiou, Jean Béraud, Paul Morand, Natalie Clifford Barney, Gaston Rageot, Madeleine Lemaire.
Created 13.11.22
Updated 14.05.24