Beschreibung:

WHISTLER, James McNeill (1834-1903). Five autograph letters signed ('J.McN. Whistler', one with additional butterfly monogram), including three to Madame George Kohler, one to Miss Kohler and one to 'Sir' [Albert Maeterlinck, his Belgian lawyer], Brussels, Paris and London (3), 19 and 25 March 1890, 6 April n.y. and n.d. [1890/91], one in French, together approximately 9 pages, 8vo , one autograph envelope (2 letters slightly discoloured, one splitting in folds); together with a copy of his book, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies , London: William Heinemann, 1890. 8o. Original cloth-backed boards (inner hinge cracking, split to upper joint, slightly rubbed, light stains; remnant of pinhole on half-title and publisher's note, endpapers browned). Autograph presentation inscription signed with butterfly monogram on front free endpaper, 'A Mr Maeterlinck, en souvenir de la brillante victoire, due a son savoir et sa rapidité'. Letters relating to Whistler's acrimonious lawsuit in Antwerp against Sheridan Ford, the American who, at first with Whistler's consent, had planned an edition of Whistler's letters. The first of the letters undertakes to indemnify Madame George Kohler in any action Ford may take; the second sends press cuttings, having kept her name out of the papers and wishing that her son would send a description of Ford's reaction to the seizure [of the books]; a cheque is sent with renewed thanks to the Kohlers, and Whistler writes to Miss Kohler with warm and malicious appreciation of her account of the Fords' behaviour, 'The description of the dreadful little woman trotting after her man is simply delicious! and vastly enjoyed. Indeed the whole story of the discomforture of the shady little couple, with their various alternations of wheedling and bullying, their menadacious proposals and guarantees, and the final collapse of the two rogues and their flight into Egypt'. To Maeterlinck Whistler writes with characteristic bombast of an invitation to send pictures to Antwerp, 'I might be received as an invited guest in some "Strangers Gallery", but under no circumstances will I have works of mine left to the friendly care of British Envoys from Burlington House ... I should of course wish to be very well represented'. Whistler, famously disputatious, had at first agreed with Sheridan Ford's proposal to publish in London his correspondence with the press, a collection of quarrels and ripostes. When at the last moment he withdrew his consent, Ford had the book printed in Belgium by an Antwerp printer, Kohler. 2,000 copies were ready for distribution when Whistler's lawyer appeared from England and arranged for their confiscation by the Procurateur du Roi (the occasion referred to in the letter to Miss Kohler). Ford made a further attempt to publish, with a Paris imprint, but this too was suppressed. In October 1891 Whistler's case against Ford was heard in Belgium. Albert Maeterlinck (a cousin of the poet) represented him, and Whistler and Kohler, the Antwerp printer, were the only witnesses. Ford, condemned in absentia and fined, never set foot in Belgium again. Whistler meanwhile had seized the opportunity to bring out his own edition, published by William Heinemann, supervising every stage of the production including the precise placing of the butterflies in the text and designing the title-page. The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (the title ironically had been suggested by Ford's London printer), published in June 1890, was described as Whistler's artistic autobiography. (7)