Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883)
To Maupassant, about a short story. 1881
Autograph letter signed ('Iv. Tourguéneff') to Guy de Maupassant, 50 rue de Douai, [Paris], 17 March 1881.

In French. Two pages, 112 x 87mm, on a card. Provenance: Ader Nordmann, Paris, 28 June 2012, lot 373.

On failing to publish one of Maupassant's short stories in Russia. 'It has been a fiasco in Petersburg. – My editor has just telegraphed me that for reasons which he wants to set out to me in a letter he cannot publish your little tale and he is sending back the proofs. – He is a beast and an idiot'. There is now nothing to prevent the story being published in the Revue politique et littéraire as early as the 26th, and Turgenev has let the editor, Eugène Yung, know. The letter closes with friendly enquiries and an invitation to come and see him: 'We need to talk about the Flaubert committee etc'.

The short story referred to is 'Historie d'une fille de ferme', which was indeed published in the Revue politique et littéraire on 26 March 1881, and collected later that year in Maupassant's hugely successful first collection, La Maison Tellier, which is dedicated to Turgenev ('a homage of affection and great admiration'). The two writers had been introduced five years previously by Gustave Flaubert.

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