We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which provided funds for the processing and cataloging of this collection.
Pierre-Philippe Louis, a French lawyer, and his wife, the former Claire Céline Maldan, had temporarily fled to Belgium from political turmoil in France when their second son, Pierre-Félix, was born December 10, 1870, in Ghent. Pierre-Félix became an excellent student at the École Alsacienne, where André Gide was in the class ahead of him. The two boys grew to be close friends and together founded
Louÿs had another early literary friendship with the poet Paul Valéry, who was still unknown when he and Louÿs became acquainted. Both young men were members of the poet Stéphane Mallarmé's circle. For several years Louÿs was also a friend of Oscar Wilde, although they eventually quarelled, as did Louÿs and Gide. Another artist who formed an early friendship with Louÿs was the composer Claude Debussy.
Louÿs's first book was a collection of poems entitled
Women, including prostitutes, played a large role in Louÿs's life. He married Louise de Heredia in 1899, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1913. Among his mistresses was the dancer Claudine Roland, who died in 1920. In 1923 he married Claudine's half-sister, Aline Steenackers, the mother of his two children. A third child was born shortly after Louÿs's death on June 8, 1925.
Manuscripts, correspondence, and assorted personal and third-party papers make up the Carlton Lake Collection of the French poet and novelist Pierre Louÿs and shed considerable light on his professional and private life. The collection is arranged in four series: I. Works, 1880-1934 (3 boxes); II. Correspondence, 1891-1921 (5 boxes); III. Personal, 1891-1918 (.5 box); and IV. Third-Party Works and Correspondence, 1839-1900 (.5 box).
Louÿs's entire career is represented in the Works series, from juvenilia to posthumously published verse, although with more emphasis on his poetic than his prose works. Included are several versions of the manuscript of his first book,
Correspondence is the largest series in the collection. It is divided into outgoing and incoming groups and arranged alphabetically by correspondent. The largest single correspondence is with Louis Loviot, friend and fellow man of letters. Other correspondents are Louÿs's half-brother Georges Louis, the historian and novelist André Lebey, writer Claude Farrère, writer Natalie Clifford Barney, actress and journalist Musidora, Wilde biographer Robert Harborough Sherard, and his mistress Claudine Roland, whose letters are bound in a single volume together with his letters to her. Also present is correspondence with Marthe Du Bert, a woman whose fascination for Louÿs led her to impersonate a journalist, forge letters, and concoct an imaginary lesbian relationship in order to attract Louÿs's attention. The collection includes several of her forged letters as well as an untitled memorandum by Louÿs (in the Works series) giving an account of the affair for possible legal prosecution.
The Personal series contains items such as classroom notes, a pocket engagement book, an admission card to view Egyptian monuments, and a copy of a newspaper left by composer Camille Saint-Saëns on a café table, retrieved and documented by Louÿs.
The Third-Party Works and Correspondence series includes the handwritten manuscript of Natalie Clifford Barney's
Gift of Carlton Lake, 1973
Open for research
Monique Daviau, Richard Workman, and Catherine Stollar, 2004