Alfred Jarry announces his next two works. 1907.

Alfred JARRY (1873.1907)

Autographed letter signed to Thadée Natanson.

One page in-8°. Autograph envelope.

Laval. July 12, 1907.

" I wanted to offer La Dragonne to Octave Mirbeau as I would La Chandelle Verte to you and your brothers. "

A beautiful letter from Jarry thanking Natanson and Octave Mirbeau for their financial help, while offering to dedicate two of his next works to them: La Dragonne and La Chandelle Verte.

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“Thank you again for everything, my dear friend, to you, your brothers, and Mirbeau. The trip to Paris went well, everything is in order on Rue Cassette, and if I didn't get a chance to see you, it was only due to my still limited strength. I could only go out—and even then, only in my own neighborhood—by car and returned in the night between Wednesday and Thursday. A curious coincidence: I had a project to dedicate a book to Mirbeau, a project old enough that I don't have to worry it might be motivated by gratitude . I confided this to Vallette and other friends several months ago: I wanted to offer *La Dragonne* to Octave Mirbeau, just as I offer *La Chandelle Verte to you and your brothers. Speaking of which, I don't have Mirbeau's address in Laval, and I would be happy to find it so I can write to him. Far from wearing me down, the trip has given me renewed energy, and the work will go well.” I even hope to settle all these debts owed to friends by the end of August; they have been of great service to me, but I am somewhat embarrassed by them. And I shake your hand affectionately. A. Jarry

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Afflicted with tuberculosis, Jarry had joined his sister Charlotte in Laval in the spring of 1906. Throughout 1907, with the exception of short stays in Paris, Jarry remained mostly in Laval, settled in the family home on rue de Bootz.

His Parisian friends, the three Natanson brothers: Thadée, Alexandre, and Louis-Alfred, as well as Alfred Valette and Octave Mirbeau, rallied to provide him with financial assistance. Jarry, who was indeed in dire straits, did not know how to pay his rent on rue Cassette in Paris and how to appease his landlord, Henri Garnier, who was threatening to evict him, so that he could retrieve his manuscripts left in the apartment.

Jarry's unfinished works will be published posthumously. His offer to dedicate one of them, * La Dragonne* , to Octave Mirbeau was not accepted. * La Dragonne* , an unfinished novel dedicated to his mother's memory, occupied Jarry during the last five years of his life and was only published in fragments in 1943.

As for La Chandelle Verte , inspired by the vocabulary of Père Ubu, Jarry intended to bring together his chronicles and exercises in pataphysics published between 1901 and 1904.