Jean Cocteau welcomes the accession of Abel Hermant to the French Academy.

Jean Cocteau (1889.1963)

Autograph letter signed to Abel Hermant.

One page in-4° on skin paper.

10 rue d’Anjou [Paris. June 1927]

Cocteau welcomes Hermant's accession to the venerable French Academy.

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“My dear friend (allow me this tender disrespect), I congratulate the academy. I always find pleasure in seeing things put in order. Your Jean Cocteau. »

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After three failures and six blank elections, Abel Hermant (1862.1950) was elected to the French Academy on June 30, 1927, by 23 votes to 1 for Fernand Gregh and 3 for the Count of Blois, in the chair of René Boylesve.

Convicted on December 15, 1945 for acts of collaboration, Abel Hermant was, consequently, excluded from the French Academy. Pardoned and released in 1948, he attempted to justify his conduct during the Occupation in Le Treizième Cahier .

Nearly thirty years later, on March 3, 1955, Cocteau was in turn elected to the prestigious institution, in the chair of Jérôme Tharaud, by 17 votes to 11 for Jérôme Carcopino.