First published 2 May 1921.
To Céleste Albaret:
"To my dear Céleste, my faithful friend of eight years, but in reality so united in my thoughts that it would be more true to call you my friend of always, no longer being able to imagine that I haven't always known you, understanding his spoilt childhood past in his caprices of today, to Céleste croix de guerre because she endured Gothas and Berthas, to Céleste who has endured the cross of my moods, to Céleste croix d'honneur. Her friend Marcel."
To Roger Allard:
"To Monsieur Roger Allard, as a token of affection, Marcel Proust."
To Jacques-Emile Blanche:
"To Jacques-Emile Blanche
As a token of admiration, affection and gratitude (and so many things that
I can't even begin to tell him in these days when I have been on death's
door). In fond memory,
Marcel Proust."
To Léon Blum:
"To Monsieur Léon Blum. Dear friend, have you received my Côté de Guermantes, my letters? I have the impression we are no longer in contact while - almost dying and incapable even of writing a dedication - I have so much gratitude and friendship for you. Marcel Proust."
To Jacques Boulenger:
"To Monsieur Jacques Boulenger. In homage from his admirer who has the joy of knowing him very well and his friend who has the misfortune of not yet knowing him. Marcel Proust."
To Mlle Alix Brizon:
"To Mademoiselle Brizon. As a token of respect from the author, Marcel Proust."
To Louis Brun:
"Dear Monsieur Brun, I wanted to point out to you an erratum on the works of Bergotte comparing them to frolicking girls who spread out their weariness to the edge of his bed, but the page hasn't been cut. And confined to bed as I am myself I can't lay my hands on another copy right now. Marcel Proust."
To Henry Céard:
"To Monsieur Henry Céard.
As a token of admiration and respectful gratitude.
Marcel Proust."
To Raymond Clauzel:
"To Monsieur Raymond Clauzel
As a token of ardent sympathy.
Marcel Proust."
To Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre:
"To Madame the Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre who will find on page 172 I think, an allusion to her description of asparagus. Her respectful and grateful admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Colette:
"To Mme la Baronne de Jouvenel. Dear Madame, to say that I had dared hope that one day we would be friends! I no longer get out of bed since I can hardly see, and I wasn't even able to correct the proofs for this which was printed from the drafts. But it is maddening to have seen you and then to only know you as if we were living in two different epochs. Marcel Proust."
[variant]
"To Mme la Baronne de Jouvenel. Dear Madame, to say that I had dared hope we would be friends! I haven't got out of bed since I saw you, and I wasn't even able to correct the proofs for this which was printed from the drafts. But it is maddening to have seen you and then to only know you as if we were living in two different epochs, in different centuries. And the famous removals man, father of so many children, who we ought to know. And Cheri! Is my hope of seeing you as foolish as that of the man who fell from the tower and who thought he was clinging on? Your respectful admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Léon Daudet:
"To my dear Léon. In tender homage of profound gratitude. In memory of the Past Outlived. Marcel Proust."
To Lucien Daudet:
"To Monsieur Lucien Daudet.
My dear little one forgive me for a delay throughout which I didn't forget
you for a single hour. They get these editions for me one at a time. I
didn't want you to have any other. Your affectionate friend and admirer
long forsaken by you.
Marcel Proust."
To Lucien Descaves:
"To Monsieur Lucien Descaves. With the respectful compliments of the author. Marcel Proust."
To Fernand Divoire:
"To Monsieur Fernand Divoire, as a token of my warmest good wishes, Marcel Proust"
To Robert Dreyfus:
"To Monsieur Robert Dreyfus. In affectionate memory of his old and very ill friend. Marcel Proust."
To Robert de Flers:
"To Robert de Flers (who I can never manage to find at Le Gaulois) with all my tenderness, my gratitude and my admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Gaston Gallimard:
"Dear friend, may I dedicate this book to you like this in your presence. Modesty forbids me from putting down in writing before your eyes the profound affection I feel for you. Marcel Proust."
To Gaston Gallimard:
"To you, my dear Gaston, whom I love with all my heart (although you sometimes think the opposite is true!) and with whom it would be so nice to spend long and cheerful evenings. But you never take the initiative. Mine always come to grief in front of my telephone as "aloof" as during the time when you refused Swann. Your very grateful and very faithful and very affectionate friend. Marcel Proust."
To André Gide:
"To André Gide, homage of an affection and an admiration that cannot be condensed into a few words like this, written whilst people were addressing me. And with infinite gratitude for the adorable Billet à Angèle. Marcel Proust."
To Armand Duc de Guiche:
"Dear Friend, ou tell me that you have no had Guermantes I? Catastrophe for me! Here is an ordinary copy of it so that you can follow and read Guermantes II. Every day just recently I have been looking, without success, for an 'original' of Guermantes I. But whilst waiting for me to find it, read this in order to 'follow on' as one says in music. You nearly saw me the other morning. I went with Vaudoyer to look at the Vermeers and Ingres. I went off to the Ritz but the dining-room and its draughts alarm me a little and I rarely eat there, except in a room upstairs which, no doubt, would be very tiresome for you. Nevertheless, I miss you very much and am afraid of forgetting you.
To Armand Duc de Guiche:
"To the Duc de Guiche, Marcel Proust.
Dear Friend, you have never acknowledged receipt of Guermantes I. This is not a reproach but to explain to you that I am sending, not without some hesitation, Guermantes II. In spite of this hesitation, you are one of the few people whom I really like and whom I wish to see again before the day of final separation. I hope that your friendship continues to respond to my own and that you are not tired of a compassion so rare and of books so frequent. Your true and grateful Marcel Proust."
To Reynaldo Hahn:
"My little Reynaldo, who I no longer see, I know that you don't care for first editions. But all the same they are on much nicer paper than the others. And then thow can I send to the one I love most in the world something that is not the first? Your Buncht Marcel, ending very moschante."
To Lionel Hauser:
"To my very dear friend Lionel Hauser, writer, theosophist, financier, in memory of our dear relatives and of the unbreakable friendship that was born in those blessed days. Marcel Proust."
To Abel Hermant:
"To Monsieur Abel Hermant. As a token of my profound
admiration and affection. Marcel Proust.
I would really like to know if Jacques de L[acretelle] has returned, which
I am inquiring of all the gossip columns. Just in case, I have elicited an
author's copy for him and the good paper."
To Jacques de Lacretelle:
"My dear Jacques, it was very wearisome of you not to have told me the page which I was going to copy out. That will entail a new appointment. I am delighted. But this has delayed my sending you a copy. Affectionately yours with the highest esteem for your flawless and limitless intelligence. Marcel Proust."
To Valery Larbaud:
"To Monsieur Valey Larbaud. As a token of deep friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Paul Lombard:
"To Monsieur Lombard. As a token of great affection. Marcel Proust."
To Robert de Montesqiou:
"To Comte Robert de Montesquiou, with respectful memory from his admirer and friend, Marcel Proust."
To Paul Morand:
"To Paul Morand. In memory of the half glimpsed gardens of Clarisse, and of Princesse Soutzo, delightful misfortunes of my life, the admirer of his ideas, of his treachery, of his kindness and his talent. Marcel Proust."
To Robert Proust:
"To my beloved brother who I love and admire from the bottom of my heart. Your Marcel."
To Charles Régismanset:
"To Monsieur Régismanset. With the desire felt by the author of these compact and little-read books for your intense sparks that set alight everything around them. Your grateful Marcel Proust."
To Henri de Régnier:
"To Monsieur Henri de Régnier
As a token of my deepest admiration which dates back to La Canne de
Jaspe and which has never diminished.
His very grateful friend,
Marcel Proust."
To Madame Marie de Régnier [Gérard d'Houville]:
"To Madame Gérard d'Houville
As a token of long-standing admiration and to whom I shall write the first
moment I have enough strength.
Respectfully from her faithful Canaque
Marcel Proust."
To Jacques Rivière:
"My dear Jacques, taken aback by the sudden appearance of your copy amidst indifferent copies, I merely say to you again how much I admire and how much I like you. But I will add the manuscript sheet that you wanted to this copy. With all my heart, Marcel Proust."
To Louis de Robert:
"To Louis de Robert, his consoled, admiring and grateful
friend. Marcel Proust."
To Henri Rochat:
"To Monsieur Henri Rochat
Who is leaving on the Brazil way but whom I fervently hope to find again
on the Guermantes way.
His friend
Marcel Proust."
To Henri Rochat:
"To Monsieur Henri Rochat
Masterly admirer of Baudelaire and my friend.
Those vows, those perfumes, those endless kisses.
Shall they be reborn from a chasm forbidden to our soundings
As the new sun ascends to the heavens
After being bathed in the depths of the deepest seas.
Marcel Proust."
To Robert de Rothschild:
"Dear friend, I have taken a long time before replying to you. But I was trying to unearth such a rare edition that... it doesn't exist! But there would be no merit in searching - and from one's bed - if it weren't to lay one's hand on the untraceable. Here it is. - Let us continue to decline the verb to find. You will find at a dinner further on pheasants less beautiful than yours, the imaginary Royal Dutch, a Princesse de Parme who is not noble and your own people, and above all "find" here the token of my faithful friendship. Marcel Proust."
To André Salmon:
"To Monsieur André Salmon. As a token of admiring friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Sydney and Violet Schiff:
"To Monsieur and to Madame Schiff, in my predilection for fraternal minds and chosen hearts. With my gratitude and my admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Jean Schlumberger:
"To Jean Schlumberger, with whom I hope to efface the memory
of the heavy footed Gustave.
In admiring (not of M. Gustave Schlumberger but of you) and grateful
memory. Marcel Proust."
To Paul Seippel:
"To Monsieur Paul Seippel. As a token of admiration. Marcel Proust"
To Paul Souday:
"To Monsieur Paul Souday. As a token of gratitude and affectionate admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Princesse Soutzo:
"To Madame Princesse Soutzo. To a favourite friend. Her respectful and grateful admirer, Marcel Proust."
To John C. Squire:
"To Monsieur Squire. As a token of admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Monsieur and Madame Straus:
"To Monsieur and Madame Emile Straus, begging them to read
the episode about the red shoes that I went to find one evening, and not
to forget, ever, the respectful affection of their grateful friend.
Marcel Proust."
To Gustave Tronche:
"To Monsieur J. G. Tronche.
My dear friend, your prohibitions will not prevent me from accomplishing
the rite which grants that my copy should be yours. What better symbol -
in the religious sense of the word - could there be with which to better
reinvigorate friendship. From next week Odilon will be completely at your
disposal when you want to go to the country (from Tuesday onwards). With
my very best respects to Madame Tronche, your most devoted Marcel Proust.
P.S. I don't fully understand if this is the author's copy that you
wanted. I don't want to refuse you a single one. I shall keep at your
disposition all the ones you ask me for."
To Fernand Vandérem:
"To Monsieur Fernand Vandérem. In admiring and grateful homage. Marcel Proust."
To Jean-Louis Vaudoyer:
"Dear friend, I am provisionally sending you this and I will try and find a first edition for you. Céleste told me that you have Les Plaisirs et les Jours. In it you will find the only verses on Cuyp I can remember. They were written prior to class at Condorcet, coming out of the Louvre where I had just seen the horsemen that have a pink feather in their hat. Since then I have been told that the Duke of Richemond [sic] wasn't dressed in pale blue but in white. You will see in Guermantes II that the duchess was no more satisfied with her portrait by Elstir than the models of the great painters were with theirs. And when saying that I couldn't have copied you, because it was printed and on sale a month before the wonderful outing for which I remain so profoundly and affectionately grateful to you. I regret not looking closely at the view of Rome in which one of the men painted by Ingres stands out. As I don't know Rome, I would like to understand on the strength of views of this type and with much help from Corot, etc. I have spoken a lot to Gide and to everybody else a little about your wonderful articles about Ver Meer [sic]. Who is the imbecile who was insulting about them in Les Débats? Yours, Marcel Proust."
To unknown recipient (possibly Lucien Daudet [provenance of Julien Green]):
"Dear friend, I have not understood your recent silences at all. Very much yours. Marcel Proust."
To unknown recipient:
"Monsieur, please excuse me gravely ill as I am for not replying immediately to your kind letter and to your superb first article. I wouldn't know how to find the "key" that you ask me for regarding Balbec because there are ten or more of them. To create a church, a seaside resort, a character I create a terrible consummation of various churches, various seaside resorts, various characters. Or rather I invent, and while my creation takes shape, memory holds out to me its album of distant memories, the steeple of some church, the paving of another etc. But in no way is it simply memories or recollections, but a work constructed in advance. Because it is at such a wide extension of its compasses the inflexible plan of its architecture is not easily perceptible in these first volumes. Your very grateful Marcel Proust."
Other known dedicatees: Mme de Chevigné, Antoine Bibesco, Mme George Blumenthal, Duc de Gramont, L. Martin-Chauffier, Walter Berry, Marcel Boulenger, Francis de Miomandre, Bernard Grasset, Clément de Maugny, Jules Romains, Jean Ajalbert, John Middleton Murry.
Created 15.11.22
Updated 27.03.24