TLS in French, signed “J. Sartre,” five pages on three gridded sheets, 8 x 10.5, April 21, [1940]. Fine letter to the French actress Wanda Kosakiewicz, one of Sartre’s love interests. In part (translated): “Excuse me, this is the last time I send you a letter Tapee. But I have more ink in my pen and there is not a drop here except on the tape machine that I use…I received a long letter from you this morning; you let me [sic] pending in the novels as serials…and I do not know what happened to your visit Dominguez [painter Oscar Dominguez]. It amuses me that he wants to help you to paint and the Moon Woman [his former mistress Marie City] and serve as the matchmaker. But I do not think [he is] so naive as you say…I was last night at the Theatre Armed…I will tell you right away that the level of attraction is substantially lower than that of the small Casino…So there were five hundred guys in a room made for two hundred; and most had come to see ‘the woman.’ It's not that there is much here, or that they are very generous with their favors, but what was missing all these types is the Actress as a symbolic representative of the eternal feminine. It guides them in peacetime and serves theme to their desires.” In fine condition, with central vertical and horizontal folds and uniform toning.
After failing to seduce Olga Kosakiewicz, Sartre set his sights on her younger sister Wanda—the recipient of this letter. He made the mistake of casting her in his play No Exit, which he had also invited Albert Camus to direct. Soon Wanda was at the center of a tug-of-war between the two philosophers, becoming one of the driving forces behind the public falling out between Sartre and Camus. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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