First published 29 April 1922.
To Jean Ajalbert:
"To Monsieur Ajalbert, to the poet, to the novelist, to the Ephraïm Michaël of sensibility, to the Gaugin of prose. His admirer Marcel Proust."
To Richard Aldington:
"To Monsieur R. Aldington As a token of admiration Marcel Proust"
To Serge André:
"In memory of a single evening
Moïse having extinguished the lights, he burned just a single candle
Creating this chiaroscuro beloved of Daniel Vierge
A candle with which a Clicquot tossed in the air is sprinkled
By one of the customers that the good Boeuf entertains
- Pastoral by name, but nothing more than an inn
Despite the well-cooked eggs and asparagus tips
But this corner of the picture is nothing; because next to me is Serge
André. His eyes from which goodness and intelligence emerge
Open wide having lashes at their fringe.
Whether my hat is grey or my jacket of serge
He cares not a jot. That Baron de Charlus goes from one side to the other
It is all the same to him.
Dear Monsieur Serge André I've come to a standstill because
a visitor has just been announced in the middle of this imbecilic
"impromptu", the first and last in my life. So ardent is my gratitude for
a favour that I never solicited but I can imagine the cost, I ask you to
believe that such a long dedication is directed much less to the article
in L'Opinion but to my great friendship towards you. I'm furious
that the arrival of my visitor has prevented me from rhyming manuterge
with concierge. But most of all I regret the faithful portrait I would
have liked to have done of your handsome and thoughtful face.
Marcel Proust."
To Pierre André-May:
"To Monsieur Pierre André-May
His friend
Marcel Proust
Dear friend
"dénoement" [sic outcome] for "dénuement"
[destitution] in Intentions (in my extract). How cruel you
publishers can be."
To Jacques Bainville:
"To Monsieur Jacques Bainville. To proactive Reason from which events follow too late their infallible, terrifying and graceful order..."
To Maurice Barrès:
"To Monsieur Maurice Barrès, as a token of respectful and profound admiration, his grateful Marcel Proust."
To Henri Béraud:
"As a token of admiration to Monsieur Béraud and with my very ardent affection. Marcel Proust."
To Jean Béraud:
"Dear Monsieur Jean Béraud,
I hesitated terribly over sending you this book. I was worried that it
would displease you. Its moral purpose, veiled under objective ornaments,
is not at first perceptible. I was having the same doubts when on the very
day it came out I was struck down by a terrible accident. And ever since
that moment, I have continued, even though unable to move, nor to read or
write, to ask myself the same question. After a month I decided in the
affirmative. It is already cruel enough for me that I don't see you (and
perhaps to see you from time to time might not be impossible). Why if
nothing else lose the opportunity to go under the auspices of a book that
is more transportable than I am, to pay you a visit, to bring you homage
of my most respectful and most ardently grateful admiration.
Marcel Proust."
To Henri Bergson:
"To Monsieur Henri Bergson, to the first geat metaphysicist
since Leibnitz (and greater yet). His creative system may evolve, but it
will always retain the name of Bergson. An affectionately close admirer
who makes his apologies that on his account and without rhyme or reason
people use the words "Bergsonian novels" ... But the incontestable and
sovereign effigy embellishes all currency of the day.
Please place at Madame Bergson's feet the respectful compliments of her
cousin
Marcel Proust."
To Henry Bidou:
"In admiring homage to Monsieur Henry Bidou (who I waited for for a whole evening and who has never replied to me. I think however that my letter hasn't reached you, as I daren't swear that I had it posted). Marcel Proust."
To Jean-Auguste-Gustave Binet-Valmer:
"To Monsieur Binet Valmer. Dear friend I wrote you a long letter not 24 hours ago. I am too tired this evening but I finally have my book and I send it to you - with all my admiration and grateful affection. Marcel Proust."
To Florence Blumenthal: (May 1922)
"To Madame George Blumenthal, to the beautiful, ingenious, indefatigable, efficacious Incarnation of Goodness. Respectfully, Marcel Proust."
To Gus Bofa:
"To Monsieur Gus Bofa. In genial and admiring acknowledgement. Marcel Proust."
To Jacques Boulenger:
"To Jacques Boulenger. His admirer, his grateful friend, Marcel Proust."
To Marcel Boulenger:
[He would like to write to him about how their opinions about Le Monde differ and makes an allusion, on this subject, to Dostoyevsky's The Idiot.]
"[...] the most beautiful novel I know [...]"
To Louis Brun:
"Dear Monsieur Brun, I am so ill at the moment after having
had an accident that I am unable to write out the dedication I would like
and I simply thank you most affectionately for your faithful friendship.
Marcel Proust.
Is M. Grasset in Paris at the moment? on account of my illness I was
forced to interrupt sending out my books. But I still really want to send
him his so that he might find in Le Côté de Guermantes the one
who he was first to guide in Du Côté de chez Swann.
To Henry Céard:
"To Monsieur Céard.
As a most respectful token of gratitude and admiration.
Marcel Proust."
To Raymond Clauzel:
"Monsieur Raymond Clauzel.
As a token or ardent, admiring and grateful sympathy.
Marcel Proust."
To the Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre:
"To Madame Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre. This time (in the third chapter of this volume, page 73 of the third volume) it is not asparagus but pears. I might perhaps have been a little too daring, in Guermantes II I said: "who signs herself Émilie de Clermont-Tonnerre". In Sodome II I say "the Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre". I hope that this small consolation, more precise in its identification, does not damage this homage of my respectful admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Léon Daudet:
"To Léon Daudet,
to the great writer, greater every day, whose miracles of thought and
style I believe penetrate to the depth, to the incomparable friend who
already knows, who will come to know even better, that I will never forget
his kindness to me, my profound gratitude and admiration, Marcel Proust.
I hesitate to send this book to Pampille, this book whose title alone
makes me hesitate. I think I will decide in the affirmative."
To Lucien Daudet:
[partial, cut image in catalogue]
"You are a Verlaine in prose (a phrase just about as stupid as that one of Mme Howland's "the intelligent one", friend of Du Lau (wasn't M. Du Lau's mansion your house?), of Prévost, of Paranol, d'Halévy etc. and that Daniel Halévy admired so much - one of Mme Howland's (a very Goncourt enjambment) saying to Reynaldo who had just sung his Chansons Grises in a Japanese house where we saw the Duchesse de Rohan and some other beautiful ladies without their shoes, their feet bare - Mme Howland (Goncourt again) saying to Reynaldo: "the music is truly Verlaine isn't it?"
[...] like your Empress dedicated to [...] Jugenschmidt is beautiful? And [...] city of Elsinor. And my [...] the slight movement of the microscope and [...] telescope that overturns the [...] I like you have a Sacre Coeur in [...] young Pétain greets me who being [...] Assumption. Unfortunately even [...] that church of the Assumption being [...] the Salute. I love very much [...]"
To Madame Daudet:
"To Madame Alphonse Daudet, to whom I would not have dared
send this terrible book, had she not taken away my scruples by demanding
it.
With respectful and grateful homage for so many accumulated acts of
kindness which dominate the past and have never been forgotten.
From her fervent admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Lucien Descaves:
"To Monsieur Lucien Descaves. As a token of admiration. Marcel Proust."
To James Destres [?]:
"To Monsieur James Destres. In profound friendship, Marcel Proust."
To Henri Duvernois:
"To Henri Duvernois his most grateful and admiring friend. Marcel Proust."
To Horace Finaly:
"Dear Horace, I would have so much liked to shake your hand today. For me that was materially - by which I mean physically - impossible. I never like to mix literature with a painful and living memory. But since your dear wife, on the single and unforgettable occasion I saw her, was good enough to tell me that she enjoyed my books, I am sending you this volume that came out today - with the faithful and constant affection shadowed by the all too vivid memory of the one for whom you weep in such a moving way. Your grateful friend Marcel Proust."
To Robert de Flers:
"To my dear Robert. His grateful friend who admires him and embraces in their melancholy and sweet totality so many memories of his dear grandmother and his sisters of the exquisite necks. Marcel Proust."
To Henri Gans: (Dedication on the proofs for Sodome et Gomorrhe II sent to Henri Gans)
"I offer and dedicate this unique copy, weary from its
journey to Alsace-Lorraine, but preserving its value.
To my friend Henri Gans these caricatures, (as they say, making a youthful
appearance in favour of Ta Bouche and my book, an unjustly
eclipsed expression, but which, now having gained it like Patron, cannot
fail to make a fortune. With very profound and grateful affection, Marcel
Proust."
To Gustave Geffroy:
"To Monsieur Gustave Geffroy. As a token of profound and grateful admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Réné Gimpel:
"To Monsieur Réné Gimpel
Dear Friend
I've spent the last few months at Death's door. I haven't been able to
correct the errors in this volume, I didn't have the proofs, but such as
it is it bears witness to my grateful affection.
Marcel Proust.
And I would so much like to see you."
To Jean Giraudoux:
"To my Friend whose Holy Face is traversed by such a web of
intelligence that one might fear cunning were that not foiled in advance
in your person by your goodness. - A Face whose model seems to have been
selected for his medallions by Pisanello - by Pisanello who was also an
impeccable drawer of birds and because of which would have deserved to
portray that tomtit's head seeking out the breeze, with scrutinizing gaze,
the bird that delights in every profundity. To you who have reinvented all
first principles, such as that of causality where the bond is not weakened
but rather effect is put in place of cause and vice versa. To you whose
conversation astonishes because it is devoid of all the banality which
serves as a connection between others. - I had Céleste arrange your
consignment to Le Limousin. She did not know that you were from that part
of the country. She said to me: "Oh? like the Chevaliers?" I racked my
brains over which particularly knightly family Limousin might have
produced, and for a moment I came up with the Corrèze Noailles whereupon I
was informed that it was not them, Chevalier being the name of a woman who
lives on the floor below us in Boulevard Haussmann and who is a cook. Her
husband is a cleaner for a garage and unlike me was totally unaware of the
prestige of being a compatriot of yours. Your friend Marcel Proust.
I don't know, my dear Monsieur Giraudoux, whether this illegible
dedication on the opposite page is a sufficiently explicit token of my
admiration, Marcel Proust."
To Edmond Jaloux:
"To Edmond Jaloux.
With all my gratitude, admiration and my virtual but deep affection which
my state of health, which seems finally to be emerging from its obscure
depths, is perhaps going to allow me to put into practice. Marcel Proust.
Monsieur Desarroy [sic] has still not sent me the candidates'
manuscripts. It is essential that I see them though. In case there was an
unfortunate man of unrecognized genius among them."
[André Dezarrois, secretary of the Blumenthal foundation]
To Jacques de Lacretelle:
"To Jacques de Lacretelle, his admirer and friend. Marcel Proust."
To Paul Lombard:
"To Monsieur P. Lombard. As a testimony of ardent affection. Marcel Proust."
To Henri Massis:
"To Monsieur Massis. As a token of my very ardent friendship. Marcel Proust."
To François Mauriac:
"Dear François, I have so much admiration, gratitude also
(but mostly admiration) to express to you. But I have been dead.
But I rise again de profundis still bandaged up like Lazarus. I
hope to see you soon. I haven't been able to reply to Jammes for any of
his books even though you know how much he means to me. I'm going to try
to send him this book. But life only comes back to me in trickles. Your
friend Marcel Proust."
To Madame Lucien Muhlfeld:
"To Madame Lucien Muhlfeld, her respectful and grateful
admirer. [...]"
To John Middleton Murry:
"To Monsieur J. Middleton Murry. As a token of admiration
and gratitude from a writer who you have always defended and supported and
who would have liked to have had one hour of good health to thank you less
briefly.
Marcel Proust.
I am sending this book to the address given me by our great friend Sydney
Schiff."
To Comtesse de Noailles:
"To Madame Comtesse de Noailles, miraculous incarnation in a female body of the genius of Hugo, Vigny, Lamartine. Respectful homage from one who could always call himself her friend, in the blessed, less difficult and always favoured days. Marcel Proust."
To Jean de Pierrefeu:
"To M. Jean Pierrefeu. In sympathetic and already far distant memory. Most cordially, Marcel Proust."
To Henri de Régnier:
"To Henri de Régnier. To he of my first, most faithful and
favorite admiration. After being in a veritable "coma" recently, I hope to
tell him over and over, now that I am feeling less ill, of my profound
gratitude. I don't know if Her Majesty the Queen of the Canaques would
like a copy of her own. If so I will send her one even though the N.R.F.
only send them to me in dribs and drabs.
Respectfully yours,
Marcel Proust."
To Madame Marie de Régnier [Gérard d'Houville]:
"To Her Majesty the Queen of the Canaques, to the great poet
who just the other day had that wonderful image to speak about poor
Nijinsky of Le Spectre de la rose and the lunatic asylum.
Her very respectful and admiring subject,
Marcel Proust."
To Louis de Robert:
"Dear friend,
I have been so ill recently that I have been almost unable to send out two
books. But you understand that the last thought of the invalid will be for
the first friend of Swann. The scene that shocked you (Mlle Vinteuil)
will all be explained to you, by necessity, at the end of the third volume
of this S[odome] et G[omorrhe] II ("if however you have the
patience to go on that far). You have often perhaps been tempted to close
the pages of such a long volume but persevere through friendship for your
devoted and grateful
Marcel Proust."
To Sydney and Violet Schiff:
"To Monsieur and Madame Sydney Schiff. You alone seem
to me what one constantly seeks.
Dear Sydney I have a thousand things to write you. Don't go to live at the
Ritz. Is this the paper you prefer, this seems better to me but I know
nothing about it. Command and I shall obey. Could you send me the address
of M. Middleton Murry. But preferably to the concièrge without coming up.
A thousand endearments dear Sydney and at the feet of Madame Schiff as
much as you judge compatible with the respect of Marcel Proust. "
To Edmond Sée:
"To Monsieur Edmond Sée. As a testament of great admiration, and of long and faithful friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Paul Seippel:
"To Monsieur Paul Seippel. As a token of admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Gilbert Seldes:
"To the very dear Dial which has better understood me and supported me more warmly than any newspaper, any review. With all my gratitude for all the light that illuminates the mind and that warms the heart. Marcel Proust."
To Paul Souday:
"To Monsieur Paul Souday, as a token of admiration and
gratitude from a friend who had hoped to enjoy more of his precious
conversation. But it seems to me that having touched the abyss my health
is recovering and may perhaps allow, should he really want, some
conversation beneath the Rose... Marcel Proust."
To Madame Straus:
"To the very dear and very beautiful (Baudelaire)
Madame Straus (I can hardly write out these words, and as a further
aggravation to the clumsiness of my paralyzed hand, the Nouvelle Revue
Française has made an exeption this year by printing the first editions on
fine good quality paper... which drinks ink like blotting paper).
Please share with Monsieur Straus my respectful affection and believe me
to be your ever loving
Marcel Proust.
I see that Hermant's copy is still here. I'm going to send him it. But in
the meantime would you be so kind as to entrust [...]"
To Constantin Ullmann:
"To Constantin Ullmann. Dear friend this book is to take the place of all the phone calls I never answered, and the letter I never had the strength to write. With great affection, your Marcel Proust. What is become of your fairy story?"
To Fernand Vandérem: (April 1922)
"To Fernand Vandérem. With admiring and grateful homage from a great friend who has been dying since he last saw him. But I think I'm getting better and perhaps I will rise again, so this dedication is practically a letter with menaces! Marcel Proust."
To Fernand Vandérem: (after 15 June 1922)
"To Monsieur Fernand Vandérem. Dear friend, I hadn't dared send you this new edition that you wanted so as not to appear to be "pushing for an article" (through an excess of delicacy because I know quite well that it could not have had the slightest influence on you). Similarly having met Prévost the other day and chatted with him for quite a long time, I was very careful not to ask him if his Revue was going to mention Sodome. But now I have been recompensed for my disinterestedness and after the article you wrote which is so lively, so comprehensive, so charming, gratitude now imposes itself as does, in its first form, the "original". Your grateful friend, Marcel Proust."
To Jean-Louis Vaudoyer:
"I cherish the luminous memory of one morning when you affectionately guided my tottering steps towards that Vermeer where the gables of the houses 'were like precious Chinese objects'."
[The full, long dedication is translated in Selected Letters 4, 1918-1922.]
Other known dedicatees: Jean Béraud, Marcel Boulanger, Maurice Duplay, Abel Hermant, Marie-Claude Danguy des Déserts de Daoulas (?), Paul Morand (or G II/SG I?), José Germain(?), Lucien Daudet (x2), Francis de Miomandre, José Germain (?), André Chaumeix (?).
Unknown volumes of RTP dedicated to: Simone de Caillavet (looted by Nazis), Duc Armand de Gramont (looted by Nazis)
Created 15.11.22
Updated 15.05.24