[23 November 1913]
Madame,1
A thousand thanks for your letter, and I would like to ask you on behalf of M. Lafitte (I had no idea about his accident!) to act as my intermediary with him. Yesterday evening I had my letter for him left at L'Excelsior which he would not have read if he is absent. I hoped that it would have been passed on to him, but in all the correspondence that must be waiting for him I'm sure you wouldn't be able to pick it out. But perhaps if you were to write to him you could tell him the contents, because it is rather urgent. Monsieur Lafitte had asked me through his features editor, M. Dominique Sylvain, to have a "portrait" of me done by one of my friends. I had my friend Jean Cocteau write it and I sent it to M. Sylvain.2 But afterwards I asked M. Sylvain to have an "introduction" of a few lines placed at the head of M. Cocteau's little piece, which is very poetic but perhaps a little unclear to readers of the newspaper who might not comprehend who it was about, and I sent it to him. Only I said to him that he could put in the introduction. But on reflection it seemed to me to be indispensable, and the intention of my letter to M. Lafitte was to beg that he insisted that M. Sylvain put in the introduction, which in any case was extremely brief and simple (much more so than the one that appeared today in Les Annales3), even if it made it a few lines longer. Although if this were to mean that the "portrait" had to be placed in a less favourable position I would prefer to renounce the introduction, because above all else I would like Cocteau's prose not to be too poorly placed. Please excuse me Madame for talking yo you about these business matters, I feel very embarrassed about it all and I beg you to please accept my respectful good wishes.
Marcel Proust.
Librairie Pierre Adrien Yvinec, Paris.
1. Presumably written to a secretary at L'Excelsior.
2. Cocteau's "Buste" was printed in L'Excelsior, 23 November 1913, without Proust's introductory passage.
3. Les Annales politiques et littéraires, 23 November
1913, printed an excerpt from Du côté de chez Swann with a
short introductory passage.
Created 12.12.24