Jean GRAVE - Set of 7 signed autograph letters.

Jean GRAVE (1854-1939)

Set of 7 autograph letters signed [to Guillaume Auguste Bordes?]

Six pages in-8° and one page in-4° between 1887 and 1891.

Stamps inked at the address of La Révolte , rue Mouffetard in Paris, at the top of the sheets. Some splits to folds and marginal defects.

Remarkable correspondence to a fellow fighter, evoking the great names of the anarchist movement such as Peter Kropotkin, Louise Michel or Mikhail Bakunin.

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1) [December 1887]. Regarding the conference given by Kropotkin in the Rivoli room [on December 20, 1887, on the penal system and French prisons]: “ The conference that our friend Kropotkin gave in the Rivoli room was, in fact, given for the benefit of a newspaper that some anarchists propose to found r, finding that the Revolt does not represent all of their desires [sic]. Our friend lent them his assistance, out of solidarity, but he had nothing to do with the creation of the new body. His collaboration remains with the Revolt. I think Louise Michel is doing better, because I just received a letter from her. I don't know if there are any photographs of LM. As for Kropotkin, there aren't any .

Attached is a printed prospectus, dated January 1, ¹⁸⁸⁸ , indicating that La Révolte could not appear that week due to lack of money and encouraging subscribers to look for new readers, keeping at their disposal old copies of the newspaper that can be distributed.

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2) [January 16, 1888]. It indicates Kropotkin's address in London and that of Louise Michel, rue Victor Hugo. “Louise Michel is still on rue Victor Hugo. » Kropotkin's London address is given on a tab pasted in the lower margin.

Sentenced to 5 years in prison and 10 years of house arrest in 1883, Kropotkin, the main theorist of the libertarian movement, remained three years in Clairvaux before being released and amnestied, drawing from his prison experience a book published in 1887, Dans les Russian and French prisons (1887) shortly before his move to London.

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3) January 15, 1889 . He will pass on to Louise Michel an observation from his correspondent, specifying the address of Louise Michel, in Levallois-Perret, and also giving that of Kropotkin. “ We will send Louise Michel your observation (…) we will let you know her response. »

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4) [January 30, 1890]. He gives his opinion on the progressive Belgian magazine La Société Nouvelle , “ it is a magazine which seems less bad to me than many others ”. He indicates that Pottier's book [ Revolutionary Songs , preface by Henri Rochefort] is published by Dentu, then explains that he will take note of the corrected address of GA Bordes for a future dispatch of his newspaper. He confirms Kropotkin’s contact details: “Kropotkin always stays at the same address. »

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5) [December 29, 1890]. He will reprint Bordes' address, adding that he does not know that of Louise Michel in London but that she can be contacted through his companion Richard. “Since you insist on it, I will have your address reprinted. I don't have that of Louise Michel in London. »

Returning from deportation in 1880, Louise Michel increased her militant actions until her arrest in 1890, due to her participation in the May 1 workers' demonstration ⁱⁿ Vienne (Isère). Released, she left for England in the summer of 1890.

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6) [February 5, 1891]. He sent a special edition copy of the portrait of Bakunin [by the painter and engraver William Barbotin, contributor to the libertarian press and author of numerous portraits of socialist and anarchist activists].

“ We had to send you a copy of Bakunin's portrait (…) The printer has not yet delivered me the etching representing the execution in Chicago. As soon as I have some, I will send it to you. The cost of this will be 1.50”.

In 1887, in Chicago, the execution by hanging of eight anarchists took place, following the May Day demonstrations ⁱⁿ the United States during which a bomb thrown into the ranks of the police caused a real massacre. In 1893, the innocence of the condemned was demonstrated and they were rehabilitated post-mortem.

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7) [February 25, 1891]. “ I forwarded your letter to Mr. Barbottin [sic] who instructed me to tell you that the engraving of a portrait like that of Bakunin generally cost 400 francs , and that the printing has since cost 12 francs. […] up to very expensive, depending on the paper used .”

It was in 1883 that Jean Grave took over the leadership of Le Révolté, founded by Pierre Kropotkin and Élisée Reclus. In 1887, the newspaper was condemned for having organized an unauthorized lottery and then changed its name to avoid the fine incurred, becoming La Révolte, a communist-anarchist organ. It appeared under this title until 1894, Grave subsequently continuing his editorial activity with Les Temps nouvelles .

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We enclose an autograph letter from the anarchist activist Guillaume Auguste BORDES, to the companion Alexandre [Roy]. A page in-8°, with his address in London at the top of the sheet.

Adding a few lines to a letter from their friend Louise Michel, he asked his comrade to circulate in his region a subscription list in favor of La Tribune Libre : " we intend to do as much agitation as we can to May, the ^1st . […] La Tribune Libre being the newspaper of all comrades, we appeal to all those who are willing to collaborate, to give the individual and collective support which must sink the present societies, and put in their places and places, a new, humanitarian society where equality and justice will reign, based on the absolute freedom of all sensible beings .

It was following the major American worker demonstrations organized on May 1, ¹⁸⁸⁶ – a date then corresponding to the first day of the business accounting year – that the idea of ​​an annual day of demands was born in Europe. In France, the first May 1 ^took place in 1890 to call for an eight-hour day. In 1891, the second “workers’ day” gave rise to violent repressions, such as in Fourmies, in the North, where a shooting left around ten demonstrators dead.

Anarchist activist, GA Bordes (born in 1853), took refuge in London at the end of the 1880s. He was one of the contributors to La Tribune libre , an “international socialist-revolutionary-anarchist organ” which had 4 issues, from November 1890 to July 1891. Returning to Paris around 1895, he signed certain articles in Le Libertaire under the pseudonym “Sedrob”, before being forced to go into exile again in London. Jean Grave in his memoirs, Forty Years of Anarchist Propaganda , seems to suspect him of having been an agent of the Police Prefecture.