1870 Female Poet Malvina Blanchecotte Letter to Aimé Giron on Publishing, the Académie Française as a “Commercial Label” and Her Forthcoming Rêves et Réalités

On offer is a revealing autograph letter signed by French poet and writer Augustine-Malvina Blanchecotte (1830–1897), written from 11 rue Cujas, Paris, on May 22, 1870, to fellow poet and author Aimé Giron (1836–1907).

Written shortly before the Franco-Prussian War and the upheavals of the Paris Commune, the letter offers a candid view of literary publishing, professional survival and intellectual ambition in the life of a nineteenth-century French woman writer of working-class origins.

Blanchecotte reports that the publishing house Didier is preparing a new edition of her first and best-known poetry collection: “Les Didier rééditent mon tout premier volume...Rêves et Réalités” [“The Didiers are reissuing my very first volume...Dreams and Realities”].

She asks Giron to lend his “poet’s eye” to the proofs, characterizing her early pages with affectionate self-criticism as naïve and inexperienced.

Particularly striking is Blanchecotte’s wry understanding of how literary honours could be converted into commercial advantage. Although she possessed enough new material for one or even two additional volumes, she recognized that her first collection carried a marketable distinction: “Ce livre porte la mention la plus fossile de mon étiquette : couronné par l’Académie française ; étiquette importante pour le commerce” [“This book bears the most fossilized wording of my label: crowned by the French Academy; an important label for commerce”]. It is an unusually frank comment on literary prestige as advertising, written by a woman whose social background made institutional recognition especially consequential.

The letter also illuminates the considerable labour underlying Blanchecotte’s literary career. Alongside writing, she continued to support herself through lessons and bookkeeping while overseeing the education of her son, who was enrolled at the École Polytechnique. She also discusses her contributions to the Journal officiel, including biographical studies of the English authors, a new venture into biographical writing.

Rich in publishing history, women’s literary history and the economics of authorship, the letter would be exciting to collectors and researchers interested in 19th century French poetry, working-class writers, women in journalism, the Académie française, Anglo-French literary reception and the professional networks through which women writers sought publication and critical recognition.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES:

Augustine-Adolphine-Malvina Blanchecotte, née Souville (1830–1897), was a French poet, essayist and journalist born into a Parisian working-class family. Employed first as a seamstress and later as a teacher and bookkeeper, she developed her literary career while supporting and educating her son. Encouraged by Alphonse de Lamartine and associated with writers including Pierre-Jean de Béranger and Louise Colet, she achieved recognition with Rêves et Réalités, first published in 1855 and awarded the Académie française’s Prix Maillé-Latour-Landry. Sainte-Beuve discussed her work appreciatively, and her later publications included Nouvelles poésies, Impressions d’une femme, Tablettes d’une femme pendant la Commune and Les Militantes. Her combination of working-class origins, female authorship and institutional recognition makes her an important figure in the study of nineteenth-century French women’s writing and social mobility.

Jean-Antoine Aimé Giron (1836–1907) was a French lawyer, poet, novelist, journalist and author of literature for both adults and younger readers. Born at Le Puy-en-Velay, he participated extensively in French literary and journalistic circles and maintained correspondence with numerous writers. Blanchecotte’s request that he examine her proofs demonstrates the degree of professional trust between them and Giron’s place within the informal networks that supported publication and literary promotion.