DOLLFUS (Charles, 1893-1981, Balloonist, the first Frenchman to cross the Atlantic both ways)

Autograph Letter Signed, 'Charles Dollfus aéronaute', in French with translation, to 'My dear friend', thanking him for "your books", the first confirms that "Charles Dollfus was on friendly terms with George Sand. He was actually my great-uncle ... and a close friend of Renan. I have not had this work of his and will derive all the more pleasure from it", he has not come across "the other little volume - with the balloon ... It is a curious document on the state of ultra-patriotic fervour at the time of Boulangism, and the author, to read him, was not easy to get on with, unless he was simply a placid bourgeois in a state of mental excitement", he was just telephoning Gallimard's "to reserve the Restif for you, when they told me you were in the building", saying that when he gets back he will "be delighted to see your collection" and to show him "some boxes and shelves of books at my place", and asking if he knows "this splendid writing paper", fine large pictorial heading of a 19th c. balloon with the balloonist and five passengers, one holding the French flag, 2 sides folio, Paris 16e., 30th March

Dollfus first went up in a balloon in 1911. His knowledge was used by the French Navy during and after WWI and in 1919 created the French Museum of the Air, of which he became the dedicated curator.

Item Date:  1931

Stock No:  52781      £375

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