Item #6502 Inscribed Photograph Portrait with Signed Calling Card. Georges DUHAMEL, William Nitze.
Inscribed Photograph Portrait with Signed Calling Card
DUHAMEL, Georges [William Nitze]

Inscribed Photograph Portrait with Signed Calling Card

[Paris]: ND. Loose photo and calling card in archival sleeve. Black and white photographic print measures 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Inscription reads "A Monsieur le Professeur Nitze, amical et fidèle souvenir [signed]." The calling card, featuring Duhamel's 5th Arrondissement address at 28 Rue Vauquelin (today emblazoned with the sign "Villa Vauquelin"), measures 3.75 x 2.25 inches. That inscription reads "Avec mes plus fidels pensées et toutes mes félicitations pour la distinction meritée dont vous avez été l'objet [signed]." Verso of both photo and card have remnants of paper on which they were once mounted; card with a 1/8th inch closed tear on top edge. Withal, a bright, presentable set. Near Fine. Item #6502

Perhaps best known for Confession de Minuit (1920) or his Chronique de Pasquier, Duhamel (1884-1966) wavered between his dedications to medicine and literature. Following service as a WWI surgeon, he committed to literature with prodigious output in novels, poetry and drama. Maurois declared his two WWI novels, Civilization and Vie des Martyrs, the best war novels published in France.

William A. Nitze (1876-1957) was professor of Romance Languages at Columbia, Berkeley, the University of Chicago and UCLA (and father of diplomat Paul H. Nitze) The card inscription congratulates him for a well-deserved honor, perhaps when in 1928 France made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor or, in 1954, by electing him to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.

A fine memento from the pantheon of modern French literature. Now housed in a removable, clear archival sleeve with acid-free backing.

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Price: $150.00