PROUST contemplates death and the posthumous publication of his work.

 Marcel Proust (1871.1922)

Autographed letter signed to Georges de Lauris.

Two pages in-12°. No place [December 13, 1909]

Kolb, Volume IX, pages 226-227

"If I were to disappear at this moment without further completion of the book, this part could be published as a volume."

Proust contemplates death and the posthumous publication of his work.

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"My dear Georges, I don't know how to thank you for your letters^.I wanted to write to you to ask you further: if you thought that, should I disappear at this moment without further completion of the book, this part would be publishable as a book, and if, in that case, you would see to it. But these fogs have made me so ill that I haven't been able to write to you. We can talk about it again later, but at the moment my work is interrupted; I am even incapable of thinking about it. Yours tenderly, your grateful Marcel. I am very happy that you read it to your father and I thank him most respectfully."

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^* Lauris had written to his friend to report on his reading of Combray, of which Proust had communicated to him the first three notebooks of the manuscript.