Description:

Dumas Alexander 1803 - 1870
Alexandre Dumas, Sr. requests that friend "drops him a line".

Single sheet of cream onion skin paper signed by Alexandre Dumas, Sr. as "Al. Dumas" with three oval loops encircling letters of first name, and a dramatically downturned tail of the Dumas "s". The signature alone measures 2.25" x 2.5". In fine to very fine condition with expected paper folds. A small area of loss at bottom left in addition to two slightly wrinkled and discolored top and bottom right corners do not affect elegant cursive. The page measures 5.25" x 8.125".

The undated note features a subtle correction of the date at left center. Dumas initially wrote "April 8" but then carefully inscribed "May" over it. Even though the note includes a typographical error, Dumas's flawless penmanship makes it difficult to discern at first glance. The novelist writes: "Dear Sir, First wishes for better health. Then I would like to see days - do you want to drop me a line?" The novelist's spare tone contrasts with his romantic signature.

Alexandre Dumas, Sr. (1802-1870) produced such novels as The Three Musketeers (1844) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1845), but his personal life was just as interesting. He was the grandson of a French aristocrat and a Haitian slave. This Romantic Period writer enjoyed tremendous success with dozens of published plays, travel accounts, and magazine articles in mid-nineteenth-century France. He then acted out his own adventures during the unification of the Italian states in 1861, when he established an Italian-language newspaper. In 2006, the English translation of Dumas's unfinished work The Last Cavalier became a best-seller.

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