MORAND, Paul. 1 autograph letter and 1 autograph postcard, b - Lot 227

MORAND, Paul. 1 autograph letter and 1 autograph postcard, both signed and addressed to Abel Bonnard. Correspondence regarding Abel Bonnard’s *En Chine*, which Paul Morand had read, and the trip he himself was undertaking to Asia following the publication of *L’Europe galante*. 1 page, in-12 size (140 x 90 mm), on the back of a photograph of the Basilica of La Madone in Vézelay, and 4 pages, in-8 size (213 x 137 mm), on printed letterhead from Canadian Pacific (the ocean liner Empress of Australia). June 21, 1924, and July 18, 1925. June 21, 1924: He congratulates Abel Bonnard on winning the Académie Française’s Grand Prix de Littérature for *En Chine*. “Your book has made its mark there as elsewhere; everywhere this judgment has been endorsed, and I am delighted by it”… July 19, 1925: While traveling to Asia aboard the SS Empress of Australia, he reread *En Chine*, reflects on his upcoming journey, and mentions the rushed promotion of *L’Europe Galante* that he had carried out “haphazardly” before his departure. “I am practically the only passenger on a 25,000-metric-ton ocean liner, for China—with all its gunfire—does not currently appeal to the cautious Anglo-Saxons”… He mentions Beijing, where he plans to stay, and savors the pages Abel Bonnard has written about it: “At a time when everyone has nothing but a jumble of ideas in their mouths and minds, you still teach us to think clearly and deeply, without the style losing any of its magic!” This is followed by a paragraph on *L’Europe Galante*: “When immoral behavior is public, it must also be public in books. We are not puritans, but moralists—all of us, the French writers”...