Arthur RIMBAUD – Autograph manuscript signed. Harar, 1889.

Arthur Rimbaud (1854.1891)

Autograph manuscript signed.

One page in-8° on lined paper.

Harar. February 26, 1889.

Unpublished document in the Rimbaud correspondence.

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"I received from Ato Tesamma on behalf of Mr. Savouré three hundred and thirty thalaris (th 330.)

This receipt cancels the two previous ones. Harar, February 26, 1889.

For Mr. Savouré.

Rimbaud

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Rimbaud as an arms dealer in Harar: the last traces of the poet. Rimbaud's years in Harar are poorly known, which, paradoxically, contributed to his legend.

Having abandoned large-scale arms dealing in 1888, Rimbaud turned to traditional commerce (coffee, gums, perfumes, fabrics, ivory, etc.), opening his own trading agency in Harar. This monotonous and disheartening activity would occupy him for the next two years.

On April 7, 1891, suffering from a severe right leg injury that left him unable to move or work, he arranged to leave and was transported by stretcher to Aden, a stopover before embarking for Marseille, where he arrived on May 20. His leg was immediately amputated, and the poet lived out his final months there. He died on November 10, 1891, at the Hospice de la Conception in Marseille.

Until now, we knew of 22 handwritten receipts from Rimbaud dating from his last stay in Harar (1888-1890), half of which are in public collections (9 at the Jacques Doucet Literary Library, 2 in Charleville-Mézières). The document we are presenting here, held in private hands for 50 years, is therefore new to the correspondence published by Fayard.