Add MS 74212-74214

EMILE ZOLA, FRENCH NOVELIST: Letters addressed to him by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly, etc.; 1887-1909. French. Partly typewritten, signed, and printed. Under the proprietorship of Ernest's father, Henry, the firm of Vizetelly & Co. published English versions of Zola's work from 1884 until its demise in 1891. By the following year Ernest had become the novelist's principal English translator and agent for English-language rights worldwide. The letters, postcards and telegrams that form the bulk of this collection fall into three distinct periods. During the first, dating from Feb. 1887 to Oct. 1897 (Add. 74212), Vizetelly & Co. were publishing new translations of Zola's early works along with his current novels, while handling matters of foreign serialisation, etc. A hiatus occurs between Apr. 1888 and June 1891, following Henry Vizetelly's trial for obscene libel in publishing La Terre, and his ensuing bankruptcy. The second period (Add. 74213), July 1898-Oct. 1899, covers Zola's exile in England in the aftermath of the Dreyfus affair, when he was working on Fécondité. This episode is explored in Ernest's tract (reprinted from the 'Evening News') With Zola in England, 1899, and in his Emile Zola, novelist and reformer, 1904. The final letters (Add. 74214), Jan. 1900-Feb. 1903, partly relate to translations of Travail and Vérité and problems of American copyright. Several letters (ff. 41-58v) relate to the action, originating with a letter that Ernest wrote to The Times in March 1902, that was brought against Ernest by his older brother Edward Henry Vizetelly, who had himself translated novels of Zola. Following Zola's death in September 1902, several letters, etc. (Add. 74214, ff.67-84), were addressed to his widow Alexandrine, Dec. 1902-Feb. 1903, along with a draft contract (f. 78) for Vérité with John Lane, circa 4 Jan. 1903. Also included are a letter (f. 52) to Zola, May 1902, and a postcard, 1903, to his widow (f. 84) from Vizetelly's wife Marie. The final, unrelated, item is a series of thirteen postcards (ff. 85-98) written by Henry Céard, author and friend of Zola, to the writer and music-critic René Dumesnil, 1907-1909. The present collection later belonged to Dr Francois Emile-Zola, grandson of the novelist by his mistress Jeanne Rozerot: see also the sale-catalogue of Colbeck, Radford & Co., booksellers, of London, published as The Ingatherer, no. 26 (October 1932), item 230. Eighty-one letters of Zola to Vizetelly are printed in his Correspondance, ed. B. H. Bakker, Montreal, vols. VII-X, 1989-1995. Purchased from Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 13 Feb. 1998.

Three volumes, in quarto, as follows: