Emile ZOLA and the memory of MAUPASSANT.

Maupassant's friends will do what is necessary.

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Emile Zola (1840.1902)

Autograph letter signed to Jacques Normand.

Pits and defects on the upper margin.

Two pages in-8°. Medan. September 25, 1894.

“The friends of Maupassant will do what is necessary. »

Zola was involved in the subscription launched, on his initiative, by the Society of Men of Letters for the construction of a monument in memory of Guy de Maupassant.

“My dear colleague, unfortunately I will not go to Paris before October 7, and I do not want to bring you here in atrocious weather. But I believe we can agree by letters, unless your departure does not take place until after the 7th. I absolutely agree with you. For a paltry sum of two thousand francs, it is useless to open a subscription to Le Figaro. We will find them well; ourselves – Maupassant’s friends will do what is necessary. And as for the readers of the municipal councils, do you want me to take a personal approach, as soon as I return? If I don't move, it's because I'm no longer on the committee and I don't want to put myself forward. Besides, this whole affair seems to me to be on the right track ; and as soon as you return, we will surely finish it. Sincerely yours. Emile Zola. »

After several months of agony Guy de Maupassant died on July 6, 1893. On the 8th, the writer was buried in the Montparnasse cemetery. Zola delivers the funeral oration: I do not want to say that his glory needed this tragic end, a deep reverberation in minds, but his memory, since he suffered from this terrible passion of pain and of death, has taken on in us some sovereignly sad majesty which elevates it to the legend of the martyrs of thought. Apart from his glory as a writer, he will remain as one of the happiest and most unhappy men on earth, the one where we best feel our humanity hope and break, the brother adored, spoiled, then disappeared. amidst tears…”

A few days after Maupassant's burial, Zola suggested to the Society of Men of Letters that a monument be erected in his memory. This was inaugurated on October 25, 1897 at Parc Monceau.