[DREYFUS AFFAIR] – Émile ZOLA – Original edition of "L'Aurore". 1898

[DREYFUS AFFAIR] – Émile ZOLA

J'Accuse…!

LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

By Émile Zola 

Original edition of Zola's article published on the front page of L'Aurore on January 13, 1898.

Four large folio pages (64 x 47 cm)

Minor defects and browning.

Scattered restorations and flattening of folds.

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The manifesto of truth! Rare copy of issue 87 of the daily newspaper L'Aurore offering its full front page (and the following one) to Émile Zola's open letter to the President of the Republic Félix Faure and published in six columns under the monumental title "J'accuse…!", conceived by Georges Clemenceau.

This publication is one of the founding documents of the political history of the French press and has become one of the emblems of the defense of public freedoms.

A turning point in the murky Dreyfus Affair, the indictment names ten protagonists in the case. The novelist knows that he is thus placing himself under the purview of the law of July 29, 1881, on freedom of the press; he revels in it: “My impassioned protest is but the cry of my soul. Let them dare to bring me before the Assize Court and let the investigation take place in broad daylight! I await it.”

His trial, his conviction for defamation and then his exile in England gave this text an international resonance and contributed to triggering the revision of the Dreyfus trial.

The impact of this issue of L'Aurore was immediate. The print run, exceptional for the newspaper, was increased to nearly 300,000 copies (compared to the usual tens of thousands) and sold out on the very day it went on sale.

Intended for ephemeral reading, the newspaper was printed on ordinary quality paper, which explains the very small proportion of copies that have reached us, let alone in satisfactory condition.

Document presented in a frame "between two panes of glass" with a sculpted molding.