HEREDIA delivers her autobiography from the mountains of Cuba to the Parisian circle.

José-Maria de HEREDIA (1842-1905)

Autograph letter signed to Philippe Berthelot.

Three octavo pages in violet ink. No place [1894]

"I was born on November 22, 1842, on a coffee plantation called La Fortuna in the Sierra Maestra mountains."

The poet delivers his autobiography, in a few lines, from the mountains of Cuba to the Parisian literary circle.

"My dear Philippe,  I was born on November 22, 1842, on a coffee plantation called La Fortuna (and not at the coffee plantation) in the Sierra Maestra mountains overlooking the beautiful harbor where the city of Santiago de Cuba is built. My mother's family came from Normandy; my maternal great-great-grandfather was a presiding judge in the Normandy parliament and his name was Girard d'Ouville. My father was born in Santo Domingo and was descended from one of the first conquerors of America, Adelantado Don Pedro de Her, who founded Cartagena de Indias in 1532."

I came to France at the age of 8. I completed all my studies at the Collège de Saint-Vincent in Senlis (Oise), a college of good priests and excellent humanists. I received my baccalaureate in literature in Paris at the age of 16. I returned to Cuba, and since I no longer knew a word of Spanish, I spent a year at the University of Havana. Returning to France in 1859, I completed my three years at the École des Chartes. My first poems appeared in the Revue Française , then in the Revue Française, La Renaissance, the Revue des Lettres et des Arts, La République des Lettres, the Parnassian dinners, Le Temps, La Nouvelle Revue, and the Revue des Deux Mondes. From 1877 to 1887, I published the four volumes of the Veridical History of the Conquest of New Spain , translated into French. translated from the Spanish by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, with introduction and historical and scientific notes, a work twice awarded a prize by the French Academy (Langlois prize).

Finally, in 1893, I published *Les Trophées* (12 editions in one year – the first one sold out in a few hours). I will publish *La Nonne Alferez* on the 29th of this month, with drawings by Daniel Vierge. Officer of the Legion of Honor – Academy. There you have it, my dear Philippe, all I have to tell you. Moreover, the Larousse supplement contains a long article about me. Article by Lemaître – from *France dans le Temps* and in Lemerre's Anthology. Sincerely, JM de Heredia.

Finally, in 1893, I published *Les Trophées * (12 editions in one year – the first one sold out in a few hours). I will publish *La Nonne Alferez* , with drawings by Daniel Vierge. Officer of the Legion of Honor – Academy. There you have it, my dear Philippe, all I have to tell you. Moreover, the Larousse supplement contains a long article about me. Article by Lemaître – of France in *Le Temps* and in Lemerre's Anthology. Sincerely, JM de Heredia.