DUTOURD (Jean) (1920–2011) - Lot 132

Lot 132
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DUTOURD (Jean) (1920–2011) - Lot 132
DUTOURD (Jean) (1920–2011) Signed autograph letter, Paris, March 15, 1961. One-page autograph letter, in-8 format, dated “Paris, March 15, 1961,” signed “Dutourd,” accompanied by a short autograph note signed “the Dutourd friends.” In very good condition. A charming letter addressed to close friends, in which Jean Dutourd displays the humor and self-deprecating wit that characterize his correspondence. Playfully referring to the “big book” he was working on at the time, he speaks of himself in the third person: “How wrong Jean is to be writing a big book that makes him get up at the crack of dawn and go to bed with the chickens… ” He then recounts having given in to a friend’s insistence to attend a performance at the Folies Bergère, which he comments on with amusement, before expressing his regret at not having shared the evening with his correspondents. The enclosed note, written in the same spirit, conveys the couple’s apologies with the witty phrase: “Forgive your friends, the Dutuards, who have been thoroughly punished.” This letter is particularly interesting because of its date. The “big book” to which the writer alludes is most likely the sprawling novel *Les Horreurs de l’amour*, published in 1963—one of Jean Dutourd’s most ambitious works, on which he was working precisely during this period. A novelist, essayist, and columnist, Jean Dutourd—who won the Prix Interallié in 1950 for *Au bon beurre*—was elected to the Académie française in 1978. His work, characterized by elegant irony and a sharp eye for French society, occupies an important place in the literature of the second half of the 20th century. A beautiful working letter, blending candor, humor, and a glimpse into the probable genesis of one of Jean Dutourd’s major novels.
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