Lot 238
Kropotkin, Petr Alezseevich, Prince
Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs | 09 May 2007
Description
Two autograph letters signed, "P. Kropotkin", in English to William Bury Westall, discussing his trial and imprisonment in France, his own and Westall's writings, and Germinal, Lyon, Maison d'Arrêt, and Clairvaux, Maison Centrale, 22 January 1883 and 28 April 1885, 11 pages, 8vo, creasing, minor nicks (2)
Footnote
Note: These two letters by the great Russian Anarchist philosopher were written during his imprisonment in France (1883-6), to his friend the novelist and journalist William Westall (1834-1903). In the first, written shortly after his conviction, he rails against the French judicial and penal systems, but also takes the opportunity to praise Westall's novel Red Ryvington. He discusses the character of Kaluza, in which "I have recognised much of your humble servant, but too sympathetic to say that it were a portrait and not the creation of an artist", and praises Westall's understanding of the Russian character: "you have painted a purely Russian character - what none of foreign writers had never happened to do [sic]".
Kropotkin's second letter includes a substantial discussion of Zola's recently-published Germinal: "It is a striking but exceedingly accurate picture of the miners' life ... His sympathies are all with the miners, and against the exploiters. Remarkably enough, his conclusions are as radical as those of the most advanced Anarchist."