Sully PRUDHOMME(1839-1907, Poet, he was the first winner of - Lot 321

Sully PRUDHOMME(1839-1907, Poet, he was the first winner of the1901 Nobel Prize for Literature) / Exceptional 12-page large in-4 (20 x 31 cm) autograph manuscript of his famous poem "Le Zénith" - This is a working manuscript, in his own hand (unsigned), heavily edited, with erasures and corrections, comprising55 stanzasof 6 lines, thus representing330 lines - Sully Prudhomme wanted to celebrate the dedication of Science in a phenomenal poetic élan, through the catastrophe of the balloon "Le Zénith", which claimed 2 victims - In April 1875, 3 aeronaut scientists, Théodore Sivel, Joseph Crocé-Spinelli and Gaston Tissandier, undertook a balloon ascent aboard the "Zénith", not only to continue their scientific observations in high-altitude flight (determining the chemical composition of the air, the dosage of components in rarefied air, etc.) and break the world record for the highest altitude in the world, but also to take part in an international competition.Tissandier regained his senses and managed to halt the fall of the balloon, which was no longer being steered, and landed, the balloon having crashed into some trees, However, Sivel and Crocé-Spinelli were dead, and Tissandier had lost his hearing - The disaster caused a great stir in the press, and the public remained shocked by the tragic demise of these intrepid scientists - The manuscript presented here is a fascinating testimony to Sully Prudhomme's way of working and inspiration - Indeed, these 12 very dense pages are a variant of the definitive poem he published in 1876 in the "Parnasse Contemporain" - We realize that to reach the final text, the poet wrote hundreds of verses and blackened many pages - This version of the manuscript contains 55 stanzas, the definitive text retained only 45 - Many verses appeared in fine, but here we find dozens of verses that have remained completely unpublished - This very important poem in the work of Sully Prudhomme is still being republished and is immediately accessible on the net - About the "Zénith", an extension of notoriety exists today, an unexpected resurgence: in 1981, France's first large-scale concert hall was named "Zénith" in memory of the balloon's ascent, since it was built on the site of the balloon's launch at La Villette in Paris