Documents associated with: press, journalist
Record 22 of 50
System Number: 03801
Date: [20 October 1890][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Stéphane Mallarmé[2]
Place: Paris
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler M135
Document Type: ALS[3]
21, CHEYNE WALK,[4]
CHELSEA.
Mon cher Ami -
Voici où nous en sommes -
Je vous suppose d'abord de retour Rue de Rome[5] - et avoir recu les derniers numéros du "Whirlwind" - dont un (avec un petit mot) était pour Mirbeau[6] -
Bien -
Maintenant j'espère que le "Whirlwind" vous plait? - c'est frais - leger de touche et crane - [p. 2] n'est ce pas? -
C'est naturellement detesté par la canaille - et les malheureux "journalistes" - qui ne peuvent pas s'expliquer le calme terrible et le sourire charmant de cet aristocratique produit de Gentleman! -
Maintenant j'y prends un intéret énorme - et je vais leur donner des litographies [sic] originales -
La première va paraitre cette semaine - comme vous voyez -
Je vous l'enverrez de suite - naturellement -
[newspaper clipping attached on right:]
Sunday Times Oct. 19.
THE WHIRLWIND "WANTED."
THE WHIRLWIND IS FOR THE MOMENT, WE LEARN, EN DÉLICATESSE WITH THE GOVERNMENT, AND HAS BROUGHT UPON ITSELF THE ABRUPT ATTENTION OF THE AUTHORITIES. UNDER THE AUSPICES, HOWEVER, OF ANOTHER PRINTER, THE TREASONABLE NUMBER WILL APPEAR NEXT THURSDAY[7] MORNING. IT SO COMES ABOUT THAT MR. WHISTLER MAKES HIS DÉBUT[8] AT THE SAME MOMENT, AND THE EXPECTATION OF HIS FIRST PROMISED DRAWING WILL COMPLETE THE FEVER OF IMPATIENT CURIOSITY WITH WHICH THIS FORTHCOMING ISSUE IS AWAITED.
Mais ce que j'ai au coeur, est le grand désir que vous leur prétiez de temps à autre, ou bien un beau sonnet[9] - (qui ne leur serait que confié, en attendant sa publication a Paris) - dont nous serions tous si fier - ou bien que vous écriviez deux mots de sympathie ou d'approbation - car vous devez bien approuver - en tout - un journal qui n'est pas de journalistes!
Faites ceci pour moi mon cher Mallarmé n'est-ce-pas - et nous [p. 3] aurons établi le seul journal de race en Angleterre -
A propos dans le No. 14 du "Whirlwind" - je vous l'ai envoyé - lisez l'espece de Manifesto, sous l'intitule: "Dusty to Vanward, on it goes Superb!"
N'y aurait-il pas peutetre deux petits mots charmants d'encouragement a dire là des[s]us? -
Toujours
[butterfly signature]
Il y a bien autre - l'affaire Moore[10]! -
mais cette fois ci c'est George[11] - dans un article ayant pour but de me brouiller avec Degas[12]!! - Vous aurez cela demain!
This document is protected by copyright.
Translation:
My dear Friend -
Here is where we have reached -
First, I suppose that you are back in Rue de Rome - and that you have received the latest issues of the 'Whirlwind' - one of which (with a little note) was for Mirbeau -
Well - Now I hope that you like the 'Whirlwind'? - it is fresh - light of touch and content - is it not?.
It is of course hated by the riffraff - and the unhappy 'journalists' - who cannot understand the terrible calmness and charming smile of this aristocratic Gentleman's product! -
I now take great interest in it - and I am going to give them some original lithographs - The first is going to appear this week - as you see - [cutting from the Sunday Times 19 October ]. I shall send it to you at once - of course -
But what I really desire is that you lend them a beautiful sonnet now and again, of which we would all be so proud - (which would only be entrusted to them, until its publication in Paris) - or else that you write a couple of words of sympathy or approval - for you must surely approve - in every respect - a newspaper which is not by journalists!
You will do this for me, my dear Mallarmé, will you not - and we shall have established the only pedigree newspaper in England -
By the way, in issue 14 of the 'Whirlwind' - I have sent it to you - read the kind of Manifesto, under the heading: 'Dusty to Vanward, on it goes Superb!'
Might there not be a couple of kind words of encouragement to be said on it? -
Always
[butterfly signature]
Another matter - the Moore affair! - but this time it is George - in an article aiming to put me on bad terms with Degas!! - You will have that tomorrow!
Envelope:
àMonsieur Stéphane Mallarmé
89. Rue de Rome -
Paris.
[butterfly signature]
[stamp removed][postmark:] [L]OND[ON] S [W] / 6 / OC 20 / 90
[postmark:] CALAIS A PARIS / A / 21 / OCT / [90]
[postmark on verso:] PARIS.66 / R.MEISS[ONIER?] / 2E 21 / OCT / 90
[postmark on verso:] 2 PARIS 2 / DISTRIBUTION / 1E 2[1?] / O[CT] / [9]0
Notes:
1. [20 October 1890]
Dated from postmark.
2. Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898), Symbolist writer and poet [more].
3. ALS
Published in Barbier, Carl P., ed., Correspondance Mallarmé-Whistler: Histoire de la grande amitié de leurs dernières années, Paris, 1964 [GM, A.28], no. XLI, p. 70.
4. 21, CHEYNE WALK,
The letter is written at right angles to the printed address heading in small orange/yellow letters.
5. Rue de Rome
Mallarmé's address in Paris. He had been at Fontainebleau.
6. Mirbeau
Octave Mirbeau (1848-1917), novelist, art critic and amateur painter [more].
7. NEXT THURSDAY
Underlined in pencil by JW.
8. DÉBUT
The Winged Hat (C.34) was the first of three lithographs to be published in The Whirlwind: A Lively and Eccentric Newspaper under the title "Mr Whistler's 'Songs on Stone'."
9. sonnet
When Mallarmé replied, on 25 October, he proposed to submit a sonnet with JW's name in rhyme (see #13449).
10. Moore
Augustus Martin Moore (d. 1918), journalist and acting manager [more]. JW responded to an article in the Hawk, which he considered to libel the late E. W. Godwin, by striking Moore with a cane in the foyer of Drury Lane Theatre on Saturday evening, 6 September 1890. See #09460, #13260, #13194, #13195 and #09461, which were published in 'Mr. Whistler and the St. James's Gazette', Sunday Times, 14 September 1890.
11. George
George Moore (1852-1933), novelist and art critic [more]. If he offended JW in this article, he did it in a spirit of solidarity with his brother, Augustus. See George Moore, 'Degas: peintre de la vie moderne' (The Magazine of Art, October 1890).
12. Degas
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834-1917), artist [more].