BLANC (Louis). - Lot 44

BLANC (Louis). Born in Madrid. 1811–1882. Historian and politician. Member of the provisional government of the Second Republic (1848). Autograph letter signed “Louis Blanc” to “My dear Escudier” (Léon Escudier, publisher in Paris). London (England), December 12, 1848. 3 pp. 1/2 in-8. Stamped envelope. AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF LOUIS BLANC’S EXILE IN LONDON? Following the insurrectionary days of June 1848, Louis Blanc was forced to leave France, first for Belgium, then for England, which would become his place of exile…Louis Blanc is trying to resolve certain publishing issues that do not work in his favor: …an initial mistake was made: the one-franc edition. What is certain is that the figure of ten thousand copies falls far short of my expectations. Be that as it may, and since you wish to continue this publication, the proposal made to me on behalf of Messrs. Garnier will be considered null and void…He authorizes him to finalize… with Mr. Parmentier the matter concerning *The Organization of Labor*…, and is surprised not to have received his due… There is a clause in the contract you sent me that I do not fully understand. It is the one stating that, in the event of new editions, I will always give you preference, under the terms and conditions stipulated for the present edition... He considers these conditions unacceptable... I would not even be able to sell, for example, the rights to my book, should the need arise. Please check to see if there is a drafting error here... As for the pamphlet on the presidency, ...I believe I told you that it was a small gift I intended to give to a workers’ association. Moreover, it is not a formal publication, but merely a few pages (...). I would have gladly sent it to you, were I not bound by the response I gave to a request made prior to yours. That request was sent to me by a friend on behalf of a social bookstore affiliated with the guilds. I’m not quite sure if this is the same as the typographers’ union, and I have reason to believe it isn’t, based on what I’ve been told since (...). What a misfortune to be thus forced to conduct business by correspondence! But my exile will not last forever, thank God!...You had asked me for my biography. I sent you two English newspapers, *The Spirit of the Age* and *The Britannia*: have you received them? *The Spirit of the Age* is the most democratic newspaper in this country; *The Britannia* is a Tory [conservative] newspaper—or rather, ultra-Tory: they represent the two extremes... After the February Revolution of 1848, Louis Blanc became a member of the Provisional Government of the Second Republic. However, having been unable to secure the Ministry of Labor, he was put in charge of a commission for workers, with no budget and no real power. He attempted to implement his ideas: associations, mediation between employers and employees, and proposals for bills. But after the Conservatives’ victory in April 1848, Blanc was ousted from the government because of his socialist ideas. Suspected of having participated in the June 1848 riots, he was forced into exile in England until 1870, when the Second Empire came to an end. Louis Blanc’s book, *Organization of Labor*, was first published in 1839. In it, the author proposes replacing unlimited capitalist competition with the organization of labor and associations, using to this end the “power of the democratically constituted state”; a thesis that had a considerable impact. In subsequent editions, Louis Blanc added a second part devoted to literary property, in which he discusses Lamartine’s proposal on copyright.