Emile ZOLA supports the subscription for Guy de MAUPASSANT.

Emile Zola (1840.1902)

Autograph letter signed to Jacques Normand.

Two pages in-8°. Médan. August 16, 1893.

A few weeks after the death of Guy de Maupassant, Zola became involved in the subscription launched, at his initiative, by the Society of Men of Letters for the construction of a monument in memory of the author of Bel-Ami.

“Your idea is excellent, my dear colleague, and I immediately wrote to Mr. Suvorin [the Russian writer and publicist Alexei Suvorin] , whom I know a little. We shall see what comes of it. On Monday, in Paris, I received good news about the subscription. I am receiving donations almost daily, which I forward to the society. In October, we will have to make another concerted effort. My wife's health has forced us to stay here. And we will probably not leave until September 15th, for a short trip to London, where I am invited to a conference. Yours sincerely, 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.