MONTHERLANT (Henry de). - Lot 223

MONTHERLANT (Henry de). Born in Paris. 1895–1972. Novelist, playwright, and member of the Académie Française. Autograph letter signed “Henry de Montherlant” to “My dear Grasset.”No place, April 20, 1967. 1 page, in-4. Montherlant writes to Grasset …the article I wanted to publish about Clermont in *Le Figaro* on the very day my Grand Prix des Lettres from the Academy was announced. A few weeks later, I gave a speech about him at the “Amis de 1914.” You can see how much the reissue of *Amour Promis* means to me… he notes, before adding: …Don’t forget to let me know your opinion on *Les Jeunes Filles*… Enclosed: Typed letter signed “Montherlant” (signed by someone else on his behalf). Paris, April 20, 1967. 1 p. in-4.…The meaning of Mariana’s invocation—and I don’t know how one might go about it—was addressed to Jacinto, as can be seen from this single sentence: “O dearest of all men!… ” Christ is undoubtedly the God-man, but still!… Drafted and decorated in 1916, Henry de Montherlant drew upon this experience to write an autobiographical novel, *Songe*, and *Son chant funèbre pour les morts de Verdun*. Many of the works published after the war are imbued with this taste for virile and fraternal values, right up to *Les Jeunes Filles*, a deliberately misogynistic four-volume novel that earned him international renown.Starting in the 1940s, theater took on an important role in his body of work: *La Reine Morte*, *Fils de personne*, *Malatesta*, *Port-Royal*… Émile Clermont was a novelist and alumnus of the École Normale, born in 1880 and killed in action on March 5, 1916. He is best known as the author of *Laure* and *Amour Promis*. His premature death prevented him from achieving lasting fame. Henry de Montherlant wrote that Émile Clermont was “one of the few writers killed by the war.”