Emile Zola wants a monument in memory of MAUPASSANT.

Emile Zola (1840.1902)

Autograph letter signed to Jacques Normand. 

A ½ in-8° page. Paris. October 10, 1893.

A few weeks after the death of Guy de Maupassant, Zola organized the subscription launched, on his initiative, by the Society of Men of Letters for the construction of a monument in memory of the author of Bel-Ami.

“My dear colleague, I do not need to tell you that the Committee grants you the three-month leave that you requested from us. I read your letter, the part concerning the Maupassant subscription; and all have approved the course of action you advise. Around November 10, so in a month, we will return to the campaign. I received about three hundred francs from Russia , as well as one hundred francs from a simple admirer. We have more than six thousand francs. Besides, I don't think we'll close the subscription before your return. Sincerely yours. Emile Zola. »

After several months of agony Guy de Maupassant died on July 6, 1893. On the 8th, the writer was buried in the Montparnasse cemetery. Zola delivers the funeral oration: I do not want to say that his glory needed this tragic end, a deep reverberation in minds, but his memory, since he suffered from this terrible passion of pain and of death, has taken on in us some sovereignly sad majesty which elevates it to the legend of the martyrs of thought. Apart from his glory as a writer, he will remain as one of the happiest and most unhappy men on earth, the one where we best feel our humanity hope and break, the brother adored, spoiled, then disappeared. amidst tears…”

A few days after Maupassant's burial, Zola suggested to the Society of Men of Letters that a monument be erected in his memory. This was inaugurated on October 25, 1897 at Parc Monceau.