Alphonse DAUDET writes to his old man Abdelkader.

Alphonse DAUDET (1840.1897).

Autograph letter signed to Léon Cladel.

Two pages in-12°. Autograph envelope.

Slnd (November 1881, according to postmark)

Daudet and his old Abdelkader Léon Cladel

“At the moment when we were preparing to go see the happy child and make the expedition to Sèvres, announced as a children's party, our high school student, exhausted by the heat and the hard work, fell ill. We were very scared for a few days, it turned into bile fever, not much in fact, rest and a few days in bed, but what emotions, you think! you the eternal brother. Afterwards, the little one gets a bad cold, the mother just has a cold. And this is how it happens, dear friend, that you have not seen us. If, when you got off your station and passed so close to us, you had entered, my Cladel, you would have been told that and your beard had not smoked, perhaps still smokes. Saturday or Sunday, we leave for the mountains (…) I am very touched by the dedication of Lemonnier who is a talented man (…) but between now and departure I do not have time to read his book. I burn papers, like proofs; the big cleaning at the end of the year, at the end of the book we spent months and months on. Please tell me what I should do with your friend. Should we present the book to Charpentier? … Farewell, old Abdelkader, my smalah salutes yours. Alphonse Daudet. »