Charles BAUDELAIRE - “I received the salary of opium”

Charles Baudelaire (1821.1867)

Autograph letter signed to his publisher Auguste Poulet-Malassis.

One page in-8°. (Paris) 14 (December 1859).

Autograph address. Stamp and postal cancellations. / Correspondence Pléiade Volume I.

« I received the opium salary…”

Very beautiful letter from Charles Baudelaire to his publisher about his translations of Edgar Allan Poe and his work on Opium.

______________________________________

“ You don't even give yourself the banal satisfaction of reproaches . You are a perfectly generous friend, and absolutely, in all circumstances, however unpleasant they may be, you can count on my devotion. But you forget, in your hasty departure, to send me back, all signed by you, the receipt which implies both that I received the Opium salary , and that I transmitted it to you. Now, I'm having dinner tomorrow evening at De Calonne's, and the first thing he's going to ask me is if I have this receipt. So what is this new misfortune? We will have to discuss the possibility of a trial (for me) of Michel Lévy. These are Notices , The Raven , The Angel of the Bizarre , Eleonora , and Event in Jerusalem . Tomorrow I will see Pincebourde. Answer quickly. CB ”.

In this letter, Baudelaire evokes with the expression “wages of opium” his text “ Enchantements et tortures de L'opium ” which will appear a few weeks later in La Revue Contemporaine of January 15, 1860; review directed by Alphonse de Calonne. Text which will also integrate his work Artificial Paradises .

Baudelaire also mentions his legal troubles with the publisher Michel Lévy who refused to allow the reprinting of his work on Edgar Allan Poe. Finally, the poet evokes René Pincebourde, first clerk at Malassis.