RACINE (Louis). 1692-1763. Writer-poet, seventh and last chi - Lot 189

RACINE (Louis). 1692-1763. Writer-poet, seventh and last child of playwright Jean Racine. L.A.S. to Dutch physician and poet Gerhardus Nicolaus Heerkens. 3 pp. bifeuillet small in-4, address on verso, broken red wax seal. Letter from Racine discussing current news, and the forthcoming election of Lefranc de Pompignan to the Académie. About the seeds sent to Heerkens' brother, who himself provided Racine with "some seeds of a flower unknown to me. I sowed it a month ago on a bed and under a bell (...)". He would read Heerkens' gazette with pleasure. "We all long for peace, and we need it badly. Money is becoming very scarce, and our King, who after all he has borrowed, still needs to borrow, is finding it hard to come by (...). If the peace of Europe is still far off, so is that of the Church (...)". The Marquis de Boissy, who ran the Mercure, is dead, and his place at the Académie française should be "for M. Le Franc, who since his marriage has been called M. de Pompignan (...). This place suits him and the Academy could not have chosen better [...]". He wishes Heerkens a brilliant fortune in his new activity as a merchant, etc.