A.L.S. Paul Valéry to Gaétan Sanvoisin

VALÉRY Paul (1871-1945), A.L.S., Nice, 10 December 1937 to Gaétan Sanvoisin.

1 In-8 headed page. Valéry thanks the editor of the Journal des Débats for his article celebrating the appointment of a professor of Poetics, a subject dear to the man who was then beginning his chair on the same subject at the Collège de France.

"Je vous remercie de ce que vous avez écrit hier dans Les Débats au sujet du jeune professeur de Poïétique, – à la place même où – en 1891 – a paru le premier article dont fut l'objet votre serviteur."

Traduction:

"Thank you for what you wrote yesterday in Les Débats about the young professor of Poetics, in the very place where - in 1891 - the first article about yours truly appeared."

The term poietics refers to the study of the processes of artistic and literary creation. Introduced by Valéry in his ‘First Lesson’ at the Collège de France in 1937, this concept explores the internal mechanisms of creative thought, analysing how a work takes shape in the mind of its author before materialising. Poetics looks at the stages, influences and methods that lead to the creation of a work, offering a profound understanding of the creative act.

Gaétan Sanvoisin (1894-1975) was a columnist at the Revue des Deux Mondes, head of news at Le Gaulois, Le Figaro and the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF), as well as editor of Le Journal des Débats and Combat. During the Second World War, he ran Le Progrès de l'Allier in Moulins. Sanvoisin also contributed to numerous journals and magazines, leaving a significant mark on the French journalistic landscape of his day.