SACHS MAURICE (1906-1945)

Les Jeunes Visiteurs MANUSCRIT in part autograph and signed. S.d., 142 pages in-8 in ink, in a red half-maroquin folder, case (J.-P. Miguet). Working manuscript of this French translation of Daisy Ashford's The Young Visitors. Written by a nine year old girl, The Young Visitors is a story set in late 19th century British high society: "Mr. Salteena was a mature man of 42 and he liked to ask people to live with him. There was a very young girl of 17 who lived with him, called Ethel Monticue". Published in London in 1919, with a preface by J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, this juvenile composition was immediately a great success. Sachs affirms: "Rarely has one seen a more delicate work". The present translation appeared in Le Roseau d'or (n° 10, August 15, 1926, published by Plon), and also in 1926, in Lausanne, by Mermod. According to Jean Cocteau's preface, Sachs had recourse to a translation made by Jean Hugo and François de Gouy d'Arsy in 1922 in order to make the book known to Radiguet and Cocteau. Sachs worked directly on the manuscript of the two friends, written on small sheets that he mounted on larger ones, and which he reworked and developed considerably; he wrote the Introduction and the end of the book himself (p. 105-138); the manuscript presents abundant and important erasures and corrections. A proof of Jean Cocteau's preface is attached (date stamped June 1926): "For this pure work, a special translator was needed; Maurice Sachs, a seminarian, offers us this work and gives us an example of the freedom that a true religious spirit leaves us".