PBA Galleries

39 lines, in ink, on 3 pp. of 4-page lettersheet, with address of recipient on 4th page. 8x5¼.

Victor Hugo writes to an unnamed man, translated from the French in part: "I knew your name sir, from having often seen it attached to some very beautiful poetry... You understand nobly the mission of thinking in our time... My studies have the same object as yours, God, man, nature... Lend me your book sir. My curiosity requests it, my esteem begs it..." With clear, bold signature. the letter is glued to a partial backing sheet, which covers the 4th page, obscuring the name and address of the recipient. Accompanied by an ink note, "Dear Al - you'll get a thrill out of this Victor Hugo letter I'm sure - Had it authenticated at the Louvre. Yours from Paris! D." Provenance: from an album of letters to and assembled by Mrs. DeFriese, wife of Lafayette Hoyt DeFriese, a graduate of Harvard who was an American attorney and counsellor at law with offices in New York and London.