Marcel ROUFF (1877-1936). 130 L.A.S. (most signed "Marcel" o - Lot 247

Marcel ROUFF (1877-1936). 130 L.A.S. (most signed "Marcel" or M), 1904-1934, to Curnonsky; approx. 150 pages in various formats, including 38 illustrated postcards, several letterheads and addresses. Important friendly, intimate and gastronomic correspondence. We can only give an overview of these often lengthy letters. The correspondence begins when Rouff and his beloved Maurice first became friends. From Yokohama in 1904, Rouff makes long confidences to the one he has chosen as "a sure, devoted friend, to whom I can give myself entirely without fear of being betrayed, and capable of rendering me an immense moral service that can either save or lose me, a friend who loves me"... He will often make other confidences to his friend, the custodian of his secrets; thus, from La Rochelle: "As usual I fought spleen, boredom, disgust, weariness with the wedding and the orgy. I spent my life haughty, and I have the immense pride of having left at least two painful and unhappy creatures in my wake"... He recounts his stormy liaisons, the beginnings of his marriage to his Juliette (1911), talks about his literary works (essays and novels, including Dodin), and his work as a columnist for La Tribune de Genève, notably during the war.... A letter is written following a letter received from Jaques-Dalcroze. Gastronomy is often mentioned, with the Grand Perdreau lunches, but above all for their collaboration on La France gastronomique. Guide des merveilles culinaires et des bonnes auberges françaises (28 volumes, from 1921 to 1928, published by Frédéric Rouff, Marcel's brother). We follow Rouff on his travels, particularly his culinary excursions: Japan, La Rochelle, Geneva, Vevey (Juliette's cure at Mon Repos, account of the winegrowers' festival), Berne, Moulins, Mont-Dore, Trébeurden, Vittel, Sainte-Maxime, Saint-Gervais, La Bourboule, Blois, Nice, Autun, Spain... On March 15, 1923, he reacted to Curnonsky's criticism of Guinoiseau's manuscript (of which he was the transparent model): "Old brother, you gave me real grief yesterday evening, because you seemed [...] to be bitter towards me. Why did you do that? And you still haven't understood what I've done in Guinoiseau's 2 years of work. [...] Naturally, and above all, I studied your life, your character, your psychology, as was my right, since each belongs to every novelist, and above all, as my fraternal friendship commanded me to do, to show what you really were, that is to say, something other than an entertainer as people think, a big-hearted person, often a victim of people for whom a legend is being created, a nice guy at last. But having said that, I've added an indispensable accessory to your personality, [...] your words, your adventures, your spirit", etc. In his last letter, dated December 2 [1934], Rouff, demoralized, gave up gastronomic societies: "I find it scandalous - and insofar as there is a moral, immoral - that brave Frenchmen, academicians to boot, eat in snobbish boxes, at ex-American-billionaire prices the 637.000th pressed duck. It's all about the car industry and statistics. Gastronomy is going to hell, and I hope with all my might to have done the same before December 1935! Everything overwhelms me: health worries, money tortures, sentimental disappointments, disgust with my time, disgust with my contemporaries young and old, current forms of life, imminent misery in the family etc."... Etc. Enclosed: - the contract for La France gastronomique, signed by Curnonsky and Marcel and Frédéric Rouff (1921); - an autograph manuscript by Curnonsky on the gastronomy of Anjou and Touraine (6p. in-4, the end is missing), plus an autogr. note on "the Rouffs" (Marcel and his family, 1p. in-8), and a l.s. (1917); - 4 l.a.s. from Juliette Rouff to Cur (1946-1954) and 3 postcards; 5 l.a.s. or cards from Frédéric Rouff to Curnonsky (1922-1945); 18 letters or cards adr. to Curnonsky, notably from Édouard Champion (about Guinoiseau), Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, restaurateurs from Angers and Saulieu (with recipes); some 50 postcards concerning the Rouff family; press clippings and misc. docs.