Emile Zola wanted a monument in memory of Maupassant.

Émile ZOLA (1840.1902)

Autographed letter signed to Jacques Normand. 

One and a half pages in octavo. Paris. October 10, 1893.

A few weeks after the death of Guy de Maupassant, Zola organised the subscription launched, at his initiative, by the Société des gens de lettres for the erection of a monument to the memory of the author of Bel-Ami.

“My dear colleague, I hardly need to tell you that the Committee has granted you the three-month leave you requested. I have read your letter, the part concerning the Maupassant subscription; and everyone has approved the course of action you advise. Around November 10th, therefore in a month, we will resume our campaign. I have received about three hundred francs from Russia , as well as one hundred francs from a mere admirer. We have more than six thousand francs. Moreover, I don't believe the subscription will be closed before your return. Yours sincerely, Emile Zola.”

After several months of agony, Guy de Maupassant died on July 6, 1893. On the 8th, the writer was buried in Montparnasse Cemetery. Zola delivered the eulogy there: “ I do not mean to say that his glory needed this tragic end, this profound resonance in people’s minds, but his memory, since he suffered this dreadful passion of pain and death, has taken on in us a certain supremely sorrowful majesty that elevates him to the legend of the martyrs of thought. Beyond his glory as a writer, he will remain as one of the happiest and most unhappy men on earth, the one in whom we most clearly feel our humanity hope and be shattered, the beloved brother, cherished, then vanished amidst tears…”

A few days after Maupassant's funeral, Zola proposed to the Société des gens de lettres (Society of Men of Letters) that a monument be erected in his memory. It was inaugurated on October 25, 1897 in the Parc Monceau.