ALS in French, two pages, 8.5 x 10.75 and 8.5 x 5.75, June 15, 1948. A handwritten letter from Lambarene, Gabon, sent to Paris publisher M. G. Payot, in part (translated): "I have just received an answer from the person I approached regarding the anthology's translation. And his answer was affirmative. This person is my nephew Mr. Hoytt, an associate professor at the Strasbourg High School, who is fluent in both French and German and who has, in the past, helped me numerous times with my literary endeavors by translating from one language to the other. He would match the original German text against Mr. Joy’s English text and, from this, would produce the French text. Thus the characteristic tone of a translation would be completely hidden. My nephew is already so familiar with the way I write that his transitions bear my own personal style. And he would be ready to start right away…this would be the best option. My nephew is a man of culture, has written a lot and is an expert proofreader, in a word, a true tradesman, in the best sense of the word. And this would allow me to contribute in the best manner to the writing of the French text. It would be painful to me not to be able to be a close collaborator. It is hard enough to have to resign myself to not writing the French text. But what is important is that I can concentrate all my energies on the 3rd philosophical volume.” Schweitzer concludes by directing Payot to wire his response to “Schweitzer Hospital, Lambarene, Gabon.” In fine condition.
In 1913, Schweitzer built a mission hospital at his home in Lambarene, in the Gabon province of French Equatorial Africa. There he spent over a quarter-century ministering to the mission's sick, while working on his masterwork, his Kulturphilosophie. Although he finished the first two volumes of the work, he returned to the third only intermittently throughout his life. Schweitzer eventually published the volume he mentions in this letter, entitled Les grands penseurs de l'Inde.
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