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Zweig MS 148
- Record Id:
- 040-001945906
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001945746
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000195.0x0002b1
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100139607502.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Zweig MS 148
- Title:
- Autograph annotations by Anatole France. Signed ‘A.F’ at end. Anatole France [pseudonym of Jacques Anatole François Thibault]: Letter from M. B. in response to an article on orthography by Anatole France, marked up for printing by France; May 1898
- Scope & Content:
-
Begins: ‘Monsieur, Au sujet de votre article de ce matin, ‘l'Orthographe' . . .
Ends: ‘Veuillez , je vous prie etc.’
The letter is dated 16 May 1898 but probably in error for 17 May when Anatole France’s first article on orthography and spelling reform was published in the morning daily newspaper L’Echo de Paris. The writer, M[onsieur?] B, whose signature was deliberately cut off for publication, was an unidentified ‘instituteur’ (schoolmaster or tutor). He agreed entirely with France’s view that time is wasted teaching children orthography which could be better spent inculcating social and moral values.
Instructions for printing, including type size, have been added in France’s hand with black ink and blue crayon. At the head of f. 1 is the note which introduces the letter, following his second article in L’Echo de Paris on 24 May, ‘PS J'ai recu de M. B ..., une lettre dont voici le texte’. On f. 6 are five lines in France’s autograph ‘Cette lettre exprime, ce me semble, les idées les plus [deletion] justes et les plus sages. M. B. souhaite, comme M. Francisque Sarcey, qu'on ne donne pas d'importance à ce qui n'en a pas. A. F.’ These lines are published in the newspaper following the letter.
Folio 6v bears a fragmentary note or minute in another hand referring to an album.
For the background to the controversy over French orthography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the role of Anatole France, see the articles by A Schinz, 'The Reform of French Orthography' I and II, 'The Simplification of French Orthography' I and II in Modern Language Notes Vol. 15 no. 8 (Dec 1900) pp. 225-234, Vol. 16 no. 3 (March 1901) pp. 80-81, Vol. 21 no. 4 (April 1906) pp 113-117, and Vol. 21 no. 5 (May 1906) pp. 139-143 all available on JSTOR.
Francisque Sarcey (b.1827, d.1899) mentioned in France’s note was a French journalist and drama critic who believed that spelling should be ignored in examinations and only syntactical errors penalised.
Zweig also owned a manuscript of ‘La Psychologie de la femme moderne’ by Anatole France, acquired in 1925 and now in the Bodmer Foundation, Geneva.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Stefan Zweig Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001945746
036-001945888
040-001945906 - Is part of:
- Zweig MS 1-218 : Stefan Zweig Collection: Music, literary and historical manuscripts
Zweig MS 132-200 : Stefan Zweig Collection: Literary and historical manuscripts
Zweig MS 148 : Autograph annotations by Anatole France. Signed ‘A.F’ at end. Anatole France [pseudonym of Jacques Anatole François… - Hierarchy:
- 032-001945746[0002]/036-001945888[0015]/040-001945906
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Zweig MS 1-218
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 item
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100139607502.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1898
- End Date:
- 1898
- Date Range:
- 1898
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Overall measurement 207 x 183mm.
ff. i+6. Pages originally numbered 17, 18 and 9.
The complete original letter (minus the signature) is cut into four mounted pieces measuring 120 x 160mm, 80 x 156mm, 62 x 154mm, 134 x 155mm.
Folio 6 measures 200 x 156mm.
No watermark visible.
Written in black ink on white wove paper with annotations in blue crayon.
In a cover of grey card 207 x 183mm. The reverse of front cover (f. i) is stamped Petito, with Hinterberger number XX/653 in pencil and SZ over AZ.
- Custodial History:
-
The date of acquisition by Zweig and the provenance of this item are not known.
An annotated envelope in Add MS 73174 states 'nicht im Katalog'.
Offered for sale by Zweig in 1937 through Hinterberger, Vienna, cat. XX, no. 653 (Add. MS. 73183 D); not sold and returned to the collection. - Publications:
-
The letter with introductory and concluding comments by Anatole France was published on Tuesday 24 May 1898 on the front page of L'Écho de Paris, following the second of France’s two articles on orthography and spelling reform (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k8018236.langFR ). The only variant from the manuscript is the expansion of ‘2m’ to ‘deuxième’. France’s first article which prompted the letter was published on Tuesday 17 May 1898 in the same newspaper.
Listed in the British Library exhibition brochure 75 Musical and Literary Autographs from the Stefan Zweig Collection (1986) and in the programme book for the Stefan Zweig Series of Concerts, Lectures and Exhibitions April - May 1987.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1986-1990, (London: British Library, 1993), Part I, p. 70.
Oliver Matuschek, Ich kenne den Zauber der Schrift, (Vienna: Inlibris, 2005), p. 205.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)