NIMIER (Roger). 1925-1962. Writer. - Lot 176

NIMIER (Roger). 1925-1962. Writer. 2 L.A.S. and L.T.S. with 4 aut. notes. Mercredi (1955), n.d. 2 pp. ½ small in-4, green ink, paper clip; 2 pp. in-4 on "le nouveau fémina" letterhead; 1 p. in-4, Librairie Nrf - Gallimard letterhead Literary correspondence in Nimier's truculent tone: "For ten days I've been trying to put together arguments against marriage: without success. So, I'm going to get married, but in ten years or so and, if possible, after a cure of misery beforehand, because marriage makes you fat. Being single loses its musty smell if you travel a lot. So: not too many essential habits (...) I think it's better to marry an American. You have fewer scruples about making them unhappy and more shame in suffering because of them. Now that's national sentiment!" He hopes that Stock will publish Penn Warren's novels; "the time that has passed since my reading, confirms me in my admiration. Nothing as good has come out of America in the last fifteen years (...). The Pleïade library announces three excellent readings: the Bible, Machiavelli and Benjamin Constant. Relations with God, with men and with women in three volumes! As punishment, "Les Misérables" is also announced (...)." "Not everyone liked Les Diaboliques. People with hearts got angry. They even added that it was a melodramatic film. A serious mistake. It's hard to kill more discreetly, either way. Soporifics and heart attacks don't make much noise. Roland Cailleux, a friend of mine - you'll like him - thinks Boileau and Narcejac's novel is better (...). Another novel about the couple, you see. He goes on to recommend Benoist-Méchin's Ibn Seoud, and concludes: "I had the opportunity to give one of your grandsons a good beating (...). He was in pain, but laughed because the intention was good. This is how readers develop a taste for obscure literature. Accustomed to displeasure, they taste it everywhere. On Mauriac and Proust: "I've just received the nrf (...) There's progress [from him: it used to take a month and a half for it to reach me] But Mauriax has a big dinner tonight, and he must still be unhappy. I was just thinking about Chateaubriand these last few days. I don't share the general respect for "Mémoires d'Outre Tombe". That terrible declamation, which you rightly point out in Mauriac (...). Proust and "Le temps perdu", which I've been rereading these days, is much truer and more touching (...) [in his own hand: It's not his fault, he left in a wave. He doesn't know where he is anymore] (...)." etc.