![LOUYS, Pierre (1870-1925). Twenty-one autograph letters signed, five autograph postcards signed, one autograph picture postcard and four autograph cartes de visite signed (with initials, 'P.L.') to Ugo Ojetti, Paris, Pallanza, Rome, Cairo, Biarritz and n.p., n.d. [1898-1904], approximately 50 pages, 8vo, mostly written in violet ink, 2 cards in pencil, one letter on a pneumatique form, autograph envelopes; and another letter.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1998/CKS/1998_CKS_05974_0105_000(104445).jpg?w=1)
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LOUYS, Pierre (1870-1925). Twenty-one autograph letters signed, five autograph postcards signed, one autograph picture postcard and four autograph cartes de visite signed (with initials, 'P.L.') to Ugo Ojetti, Paris, Pallanza, Rome, Cairo, Biarritz and n.p., n.d. [1898-1904], approximately 50 pages, 8vo, mostly written in violet ink, 2 cards in pencil, one letter on a pneumatique form, autograph envelopes; and another letter.
Louys's letters, written with increasing friendliness, date from his first meeting with Ojetti, in Cairo, in 1898. He writes of his efforts to learn Italian ('Vous et d'Annunzio, vous êtes bien difficile'), his withdrawal from social life, 'la réserve que je me suis imposé ici' [in Cairo], and his distancing himself from literary circles. 'Vous ne savez donc pas que je ne connais personne? Que j'ai toujours oublié jusqu'ici de me faire presenter à Zola, Bourget, Loti, France, Sardou, Paris, Rostand, Berthelot, Lemaître ... je pourrais vous citer cent illustres écrivains avec lesquels je n'ai jamais échangé une parole'. Elsewhere he refers to Heredia (his brother-in-law) and a lunch with Leoncavallo, and several letters convey his dislike of unexpected visitors. At Biarritz for his wife's health, describing the baths as 'le palais d'ennui', he mocks the English visitors, 'La seule chose un peu romaine que nous avons trouvée ici c'est l'Anglais en voyage ... il y a dans les rues des chapeaux de femmes tellement épouvantables que l'on se croirait aux Thermes de Caracalla un jour de tournée Thomas Cook'.
Ugo Ojetti (1871-1946), the Italian writer and art critic, recalled his visit to Pierre Louys and his brother at their house in Cairo in his memoir Cose Viste (Florence, 1960). Louys married Louise de Heredia in 1899, the year before the Chansons de Bilitis, which had brought him fame in 1895, now set to music by Debussy, were at last performed. He required the stimulus of foreign travel for his creativity, as well as for his indifferent health, but his last major journey abroad was in 1901, when he visited Spain. (32)
Louys's letters, written with increasing friendliness, date from his first meeting with Ojetti, in Cairo, in 1898. He writes of his efforts to learn Italian ('Vous et d'Annunzio, vous êtes bien difficile'), his withdrawal from social life, 'la réserve que je me suis imposé ici' [in Cairo], and his distancing himself from literary circles. 'Vous ne savez donc pas que je ne connais personne? Que j'ai toujours oublié jusqu'ici de me faire presenter à Zola, Bourget, Loti, France, Sardou, Paris, Rostand, Berthelot, Lemaître ... je pourrais vous citer cent illustres écrivains avec lesquels je n'ai jamais échangé une parole'. Elsewhere he refers to Heredia (his brother-in-law) and a lunch with Leoncavallo, and several letters convey his dislike of unexpected visitors. At Biarritz for his wife's health, describing the baths as 'le palais d'ennui', he mocks the English visitors, 'La seule chose un peu romaine que nous avons trouvée ici c'est l'Anglais en voyage ... il y a dans les rues des chapeaux de femmes tellement épouvantables que l'on se croirait aux Thermes de Caracalla un jour de tournée Thomas Cook'.
Ugo Ojetti (1871-1946), the Italian writer and art critic, recalled his visit to Pierre Louys and his brother at their house in Cairo in his memoir Cose Viste (Florence, 1960). Louys married Louise de Heredia in 1899, the year before the Chansons de Bilitis, which had brought him fame in 1895, now set to music by Debussy, were at last performed. He required the stimulus of foreign travel for his creativity, as well as for his indifferent health, but his last major journey abroad was in 1901, when he visited Spain. (32)