Louis de Rougement, colonial adventurer and hoaxer: autograph letter, signed, offering stories to an editor for publication. Ampthill, Bedfordshire, 1903.

A$330 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Signed

Manuscript in ink on ruled paper, 160 x 200 mm; headed Flitwick, Ampthill, 1.7.03 , the letter is addressed to The Author Syndicate, Lincoln Inn Field, London, and is signed at the foot Yours, Louis de Rougemont ; wet stamped Received 2 Jul 03 , and with a correspondence number in red crayon; original vertical fold, clean and legible. An interesting piece of business correspondence in the hand of the extraordinary Louis de Rougemont (1847-1921), The Greatest Liar on Earth , which illuminates his entrepreneurial modus operandi. De Rougemont writes to a London editor: Dear Sir, I send you the enclosed sketch just as it is without re-writing it. All those I have as yet written have to be edited, so I leave it to you to use as much of it that you deem proper. If you find a market I will send them as fast as you can dispose of them from two to fifty thousand words all more or less Rougmonesque. From the ADB : Louis de Rougemont (1847-1921), hoaxer, was born Henri Louis Grin on 12 November 1847 at Gressy, Vaud canton, Switzerland, son of Antoine Samuel Emanuel Grin, farmer, and his wife Jeanne, née Perret. Educated at a local primary school, he moved with his family to Yverdon, where he worked in his father s wagon business. At about 16 he became a footman to the actress Fanny Kemble, touring extensively and learning fluent English. In 1870-74 he was a valet in London, and in 1875 came to Australia as a butler with the new governor of Western Australia, Sir William Robinson; to Lad

• Binding: Hardcover

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