Autograph letter signed, dated : on board the López y López [in the Mediterranean Sea], 9-14 December 1907, to an unidentified recipient, 1907 Dec. 9-14.

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Autograph letter signed, dated : on board the López y López [in the Mediterranean Sea], 9-14 December 1907, to an unidentified recipient, 1907 Dec. 9-14.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270668602

Describing at length his life on board the ship--weather, food, fellow passengers, crew--, saying that it is curious how women, who endure so many things--men, childbirth, nudity, the corset--endure the sea with difficulty (except for the English, who are néréides, whose element is water), saying that they were greeted in Genoa by bad weather, that he missed seeing Stromboli (he doesn't think he missed much) and the Strait of Messina but in return had a good view of Etna from base to summit, that Crete was obscured by clouds, noting that the ship's library has only books in Spanish, which forces him to strive to understand them--he is making progress in the language of Don Quixote and Alfonso XIII, and finds great benefit in penetrating, however little, a foreign literature--, complaining that, signs to the contrary notwithstanding, there is no life belt (ceinture de liège) in his cabin, saying that if he were Pierre Loti he would paint the sea, the clouds, the wind, and would inspire the recipient with interest in it all, mentioning the two sonatas op. 14 [by Beethoven], saying that at the concert on the 6th he may play his Africa [op. 89] in the first part (the sonata goes better afterwards), deploring the killing of sperm whales, adding that for the first time in his life he is keeping a journal de bord--he wanted to do for the recipient what he has never done for anyone else--, that he was often asked why he never wrote about his travels and explaining that he has never done so "parcequ'il n'y a pas de genre plus ingrat," etc., etc.

1 item (20 p.) ; (12mo)

Pierpont Morgan Library.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7200249

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