LAFARGUE, Marc. Le Jardin d'où l'on voit la vie. - Lot 182

LAFARGUE, Marc. Le Jardin d'où l'on voit la vie. Toulouse, Bibliothèque de l'Effort, 1897. In-8, bradel. Full wine-white cardboard with floral decoration, smooth spine decorated with gold lettering on brown leather, light-blue paper lining and endpapers with fern motifs, cover preserved. VI, 1 f., from 10 to 80 pp., 1 f. (errata), a number of decorative plates. Covers rubbed. First edition of the first collection published by Toulouse poet Marc Lafargue (1876-1927). Comprising some twenty poems in alexandrine, influenced by Verlaine and the Symbolists, the collection bears witness to the author's attachment to his native land. Our copy is enriched by a handwritten sonnet by the author addressed to Charles Guérin, on an in-12 sheet (12x15cm); entitled "à une malade", it opens with this quatrain: "Since your desire is captive in cities patient who dreams of the golden orient here is the memory of a sailor, the box of a grandfather who died in the days of sailboats and islands". It is also enriched by a handwritten letter from the author to Charles Guérin dated October 30, 1896 on an in-8 sheet inserted after the title page. In it, the author solicits Charles Guérin's support for his project to erect a monument in Toulouse to the Symbolist poet Éphraïm Mickaël, who was born in Toulouse in 1866 and died of tuberculosis in 1890 at the age of 23: "You have supported us too well in our "effort" to promote art in Toulouse not to associate yourself with this event, especially since Éphraïm Mickaël was a great poet, and so many masters have already given their support, de Hérédia, Mallarmé, de Régner and so on. Please reply, so that your name will soon appear on the committee to be published in "L'Effort". Autograph signed letter from the author on the flyleaf: "À Charles Guérin, témoignage de ma vie sympathie." A fine copy enriched with touching letters from the author to his contemporary, the poet Charles Guérin (1873-1907). Provenance: Charles Guérin by descent.