ALAIN-FOURNIER (Henri-Alban Fournier). - Lot 12

ALAIN-FOURNIER (Henri-Alban Fournier). Born in La Chapelle d'Angillon. 1886-died in action September 22, 1914. Writer, author of Le Grand Meaulnes. A.S. letter-card "H. Fournier" to Jean-Gustave Tronche [future administrator of La NRF]. Paris, January 7, 1910. 1 page in-12. Address and postmarks. Fournier informs Jean-Gustave Tronche (administrator of the NRF publishing house) of his visit the following day: ...If you should not be at home on Sunday morning between 10:1/2 and 11:1/2, or if you would mind my dropping by at that hour - with a friend who wishes to see La Grappe, please be so kind as to give me a word... Henri-Alban Fournier, the son of schoolteachers and a pupil in his father's class, grew up in the Berrichonne region of France, in La Chapelle d'Angillon. In 1910, he became a literary columnist for the Paris-Journal. He began to publish a few poems, essays and stories, which met with some success. But above all, he slowly developed the work that would make him famous: Le Grand Meaulnes, published in November 1913 by Émile-Paul. The novel narrowly missed out on the Prix Goncourt, but was hailed almost unanimously by the critics of the day. Mobilized as a reserve lieutenant, Fournier was killed in the early fighting. The painting La Grappe, or Around the Singer, by André Lhote, dated 1908, belonged to Jean-Gustave Tronche, whose wife Lucie was a childhood friend of the painter. Jacques Rivière met André Lhote in Bordeaux in 1906. This marked the start of an important correspondence, which was to begin in 1909 with Henri Alain-Fournier, Rivière's friend and brother-in-law. The correspondence between the three young artists, Lhote, Fournier and Rivière, provides an insight into the artistic mutation of the period.