Dominique Aury letters to Castor Seibel and related papers
Overview
Letters and inscribed books from French author Dominique Aury to art dealer and writer Castor Seibel.
Dates
- Creation: 1989-1990
Creator
- Aury, Dominique (Person)
Language of Materials
French
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
Extent
.5 linear feet (2 boxes)216 letters from Aury to Seibel. With a letter from Marcel Jouhandeau to Aury; two published translations by Aury inscribed to Seibel (Yukio Mishima's La mort en été, and Thomas Browne's Les urnes funéraires); and a corrected proof of a preface by Aury to Marguerite Yourcenar's Labyrinthe du monde.
Biographical / Historical
Dominique Aury was a French writer and translator who achieved fame in 1994 when it was confirmed that she was the author, under the pseudonym Pauline Réage, of the sensational erotic best-seller Histoire d’O (published in 1954).
Castor Seibel was an art seller and writer. He was very close to Dominique Aury at the end of his life; she became one of his privileged correspondents. Between 1991 and 1994, she wrote him several letters a week in which she told him everything about her personal and professional life, her readings, and her translation work.
Arrangement
Collection is in original order.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2018M-34. Purchased from Carl Williams Rare Books with funds from the Amy Lowell Trust, 2017.
2021M-10. Purchased from Carl Williams Rare Books and Pierre Berge & Associes with funds from the Amy Lowell Trust, 2021.
Separated Materials
Two items purchased with this collection were separated out for individual cataloging: a booklet by Jean-Philippe Segonds dedicated to Dominique Aury; and a copy of Songes by Dominique Aury dedicated to Castor Seibel.
Processing Information
Processed by Melanie Wisner, 2019.
Creator
- Aury, Dominique (Person)
- Seibel, Castor (addressee., Person)
- Jouhandeau, Marcel (Correspondent, Person)
- Title
- Aury, Dominique, 1907-1998. Dominique Aury letters to Castor Seibel and related papers, 1989-1994 (MS Fr 686): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2019 April 19
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou03156
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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