Collection of Marcel Proust papers, 1870-1950 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Title: Collection of Marcel Proust papers, 1870-1950

ID: 01/01/MSS00045

Primary Creator: Proust, Marcel (1871-1922)

Extent: 12.0 Cubic Feet

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following series and subseries:

Series 1: Madame Robert Proust gathering of Marcel Proust materials (acquired through Henri Lefebvre)

Series 2: Proust to Bibesco (Proust 1)

Series 3: Proust and Hauser Correspondence (Proust 2 and 2A)

-Subseries 1: LH (Hauser to Proust--Proust 2)

-Subseries 2: Hauser (Proust to Hauser--Proust 2A)

Series 4: Proust to Grandjean, Lauris, and others (Proust 3)

Series 5: Proust to Goyau, Daudet, Montesquiou-Fezensac, and others (Proust 4)

Series 6: Correspondence to Proust (Proust 5)

Series 7: Items by Proust (Proust 6-Proust 86)

Series 8: Montesquiou-Fezensac to Proust (Montesquiou 2-6)

Series 9: Correspondence from Walter Berry to Marcel Proust (Proust 87)

Series 10: Additional Accruals (Proust 88-93)

-Subseries 1: Correspondence with Blanche, Daudet, Dreyfus, Lemaire, and Schiff to Marcel Proust (Proust 88-92)

-Subseries 2: September 2013 accrual (Proust 93)

Series 11: Proust's milieu

-Subseries 1: Jacques Brehant and Amelie Bessiere

-Subseries 2: Friends and acquaintances writing for newspapers

-Subseries 3: Comtesse Greffulhe

-Subseries 4: George Boyer

-Subseries 5: Mary Wooster

-Subseries 6: Francois Selz collection of Leon Pierre-Quint and Henri de Montherlant

-Subseries 7: Pierre-Quint manuscripts

-Subseries 8: Fragiles

-Subseries 9: Daudet family

Languages: French

Papers of the French novelist Marcel Proust provides a look at the man and his times. Proust had a large and varied number of correspondents, and his letters include an important source of information about Parisian life and French culture at the turn of the century. Includes published and unpublished manuscripts, documents and letters about the Dreyfus Affair, John Ruskin, and the nature and function of literary criticism.

Born July 10, 1871 in Auteuil, France, a suburb of Paris, to wealthy parents Dr. Adrien Proust and Jeanne Weil. A nervous and frail child, he suffered from severe asthma.  He completed one year of military service, then studied law and philosophy.  He published his first works, Portraits de Peintres and Plaisirs et les Jours, in 1896. Proust's unpublished works from this period, Jean Santeuil and Contre Sainte-Beuve, were discovered in the 1950s.

His earliest love affairs, which had been heterosexual, changed later into homosexual affairs.  To the age of 35 Proust lived the life of a social climber in the Paris salons, although he worked for a short time as a lawyer and was also active in the Dreyfuss affair.

During 1899 he became interested in the works of the English critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), and after Ruskin's death the next year, Proust published an article that established him as a Ruskin scholar. Proust wrote several more articles on Ruskin, and with the help of an English-speaking friend, Marie Nordlinger, and his mother, Proust translated into French Ruskin's The Bible of Amiens (1904) and Sesame and Lilies (1906).

When Proust's father died in 1903 and his mother in 1905, he withdrew gradually from society, living in a sound-proof apartment and devoting himself chiefly to writing and introspection. In 1913 Proust published the first of his seven part major work, A la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). The second volume appeared in 1919 and won the Goncourt Prize, and the next parts made him internationally famous.  He worked on his novel from 1909 until the end of life.

Died November 18, 1922 in Paris, France of bronchitis and pneumonia, contracted after a series of asthma attacks.  The final volumes of his novel appeared under the direction of his brother Robert.

In his own lifetime, the merit of Proust's novel was debated by those who perceived its brilliance and those who claimed it was unreadable. Today it is recognized as one of the major literary works of the Western canon.

Repository: Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Access Restrictions: Open to researchers.

Use Restrictions:

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Processing Information: https://wiki.cites.uiuc.edu/wiki/display/librare/Home

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Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Madame Robert Proust gathering of Marcel Proust materials (acquired through Henri Lefebvre)],
[Series 2: Proust to Bibesco (Proust 1)],
[Series 3: Proust and Hauser Correspondence (Proust 2 and 2A)],
[Series 4: Proust to Grandjean, Lauris, and others (Proust 3)],
[Series 5: Proust to Goyau, Daudet, Montesquiou-Fezensac, and others (Proust 4)],
[Series 6: Correspondence to Proust (Proust 5)],
[Series 7: Items by Proust (Proust 6-Proust 86)],
[Series 8: Montesquiou-Fezensac to Proust (Montesquiou 2-6)],
[Series 9: Correspondence from Walter Berry to Marcel Proust (Proust 87)],
[Series 10: Additional Accruals (Proust 88-93)],
[Series 11: Proust's milieu],
[[information restricted]],
[All]

Series 11: Proust's milieu

Sub-series 1: Jacques Brehant and Amelie Bessiere

Box 16

Folder 1

Item Bessiere-Brehant 1: Jacques Brehant articles, undated

Four articles written by Jacques Brehant, son of Amelie Bessiere (cousin of Marcel Proust), and one article by Philip Kolb

Creator: Brehant, Jacques; Kolb, Philip

Physical Description: 6 packets

Folder 2

Item Bessiere-Brehant 2: Conversations enregistrees entre Amelie Bessiere et Jacques Brehant, 1973-1974

Three portfolios of photocopies of transcriptions of conversations between Amelie Bessiere, cousin of Proust, and her son Jacques Brehant; photographs of Bessiere and photocopies of photographs.

Creator: Brehant, Jacques; Bessiere, Amelie

Physical Description: 3 portfolios, 5 photos, 12 photocopies

Sub-series 2: Friends and acquaintances writing for newspapers

Box 16

Folder 3

Item Newspapers 1: Articles by Jacques-Emile Blanche about Proust, ca. 1928

Newspaper clippings: Two parts of article "Mes Modeles" on Marcel Proust by Jacques-Emile Blanche; one by unknown author.

Creator: Blanche, Jacques-Emile

Physical Description: 3 clippings

Folder 4

Item Newspapers 2: "Un Gentilhomme de Lettres", 6 July 1892

Newspaper clipping of article  by Georges Rodenbach published in Le Figaro.

Creator: Rodenbach, Georges

Physical Description: 1 clipping

Sub-series 3: Comtesse Greffulhe

Box 16

Folder 5

Item Greffulhe 1: Comtesse Greffulhe papers, ca. 1886-1938

Household notes and three photographs: "La Dione," bust on mantlepiece; mother with two children; Elaine Greffulhe, [18]86

Creator: elisabeth, Countess Greffulhe

Physical Description: 34 sheets, 3 photos

Sub-series 4: George Boyer

Box 16

Folder 6

Item Boyer 1: Lemaire, Mme Madeleine to Boyer, Georges to attend soiree, undated

Autograph MS

First line: "Priere Priere a Monsieur Georges Boyer d'aller ce soir a 10 heures Chez Madame Madeleine Lemaire?"

Creator: Lemaire, Madeleine

Physical Description: 1 page

Folder 7

Item Boyer 2: Georges Boyer portrait, undated

Portrait of Georges Boyer on board, by Mon. Benque, 33, Rue Boissy d'Anglas, Paris, or 111, Rue des Marechaux, Varsovie

Creator: Benque, Mon.

Physical Description: 1 portrait

Sub-series 5: Mary Wooster

Box 16

Folder 8

Item Wooster 1: Mary Wooster papers, 1971, 1978

ALS dated "31/XVI/71" from Wooster, Mary to Waren deLeone to you all at the [?] house", and two photographs of Mary Wooster, one taken by Cecil Beaton

Creator: Wooster, Mary; Beaton, Cecil

Physical Description: 1 page, 2 photographs

Sub-series 6: Francois Selz collection of Leon Pierre-Quint and Henri de Montherlant

Box 16

Folder 9

Item Selz 1: "Mon attitude a l'egard de l'Allemagne avant le guerre", undated

Original carbon copy of Henri de Montherlant's article

Acquisition Information: gift of François Selz, 1989

Creator: Montherlant, Henri de

Physical Description: 32 pages

Folder 10

Item Selz 2: "Henri de Montherlant 1945", undated

Original ms signed (2 drafts), original typescript, photocopy of article by Leon Pierre-Quint.

Acquisition Information: gift of François Selz, 1989

Creator: Pierre-Quint, Leon

Physical Description: 41 pages

Folder 11

Item Selz 3: Beer, Jean de to M Ribet, 23 June 1945

Typed copy of letter concerning Henri de Montherlant

Acquisition Information: gift of François Selz, 1989

Physical Description: 1 1/4 pages

Folder 12

Item Selz 4: "Su te Comique dans l'oeuvre de Marcel Proust", undated

Two ms drafts of article by Leon Pierre-Quint and 4 leaves of proofs

Acquisition Information: gift of François Selz, 1989

Creator: Pierre-Quint, Leon

Physical Description: 28 pages

Folder 13

Item Selz 5: Pierre-Quint lecture at Illiers, ca. August 1955

MS of speech by Leon Pierre-Quint delivered at Illiers, August 29, 1955

Acquisition Information: gift of François Selz, 1989

Creator: Pierre-Quint, Leon

Physical Description: 7 pages

Folder 14

Item Selz 6: Foreword about Miroslav Karleja, undated

MS and typescript drafts of Pierre-Quint's foreword for "Enterrement a Theresienbourg" by Miroslav Karleja and one newspaper clipping

Acquisition Information: gift of François Selz, 1989

Creator: Pierre-Quint, Leon

Physical Description: 91 pages

Sub-series 7: Pierre-Quint manuscripts

Box 16

Folder 15

Item Pierre-Quint 1: "Vingt-cinq ans apres la work de Marcel Proust", ca. 1947

MSS, 2 versions of article by Leon Pierre-Quint

Creator: Pierre-Quint, Leon

Physical Description: 13 pages

Folder 16

Item Pierre-Quint 2: "Le Colonel Foster plaidera coupable on les sujet interdit au theatre", ca. 1947

MS of article by Leon Pierre-Quint

Creator: Pierre-Quint, Leon

Physical Description: 2 pages

Folder 17

Item Pierre-Quint 3: "Les consequences philosophiques des theories d'Einstein", ca. 1947

MS signed of article by Leon Pierre-Quint

Creator: Pierre-Quint, Leon

Physical Description: 5 pages

Sub-series 8: Fragiles

Box 16

Folder 18

Item Fragiles: "Fragiles", unknown

photocopies of rare book by Louis de Robert

Physical Description: 1 portfolio

Sub-series 9: Daudet family

Box 16

Folder 19

Item Daudet 1: M & Mme Alphonse Daudet newspaper clippings, ca. 1940

Newspaper clippings about M & Mme Alphonse Daudet

Physical Description: 20 pieces

Folder 20

Item Daudet 2: Les Cahiers Marcel Proust (5) Autor de Soixant lettres de Marcel Proust par Lucien Daudet, undated

MS draft of book by Lucien Daudet

Creator: Daudet, Lucien

Physical Description: 130 pages

Folder 21

Item Daudet 3: "Un dimance au Conservatoire," Le Gaulois, 14 January 1895

Newspaper article by Marcel Proust. Front page.

Inscribed by Proust: "A Monsieur Lucien Daudet, en souvenir du Duc de Richmond et des oeillets roses" (to Mr. Lucien Daudet, in memory of the Duke of Richmond and [of the] pink carnations) and signed "son devoue Marcel Proust" (His devoted Marcel Proust).

Creator: Proust, Marcel

Physical Description: 1 clipping

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Madame Robert Proust gathering of Marcel Proust materials (acquired through Henri Lefebvre)],
[Series 2: Proust to Bibesco (Proust 1)],
[Series 3: Proust and Hauser Correspondence (Proust 2 and 2A)],
[Series 4: Proust to Grandjean, Lauris, and others (Proust 3)],
[Series 5: Proust to Goyau, Daudet, Montesquiou-Fezensac, and others (Proust 4)],
[Series 6: Correspondence to Proust (Proust 5)],
[Series 7: Items by Proust (Proust 6-Proust 86)],
[Series 8: Montesquiou-Fezensac to Proust (Montesquiou 2-6)],
[Series 9: Correspondence from Walter Berry to Marcel Proust (Proust 87)],
[Series 10: Additional Accruals (Proust 88-93)],
[Series 11: Proust's milieu],
[[information restricted]],
[All]