MALLARMÉ (Stéphane). Born in Paris. 1842-1898. C.A.S. "Stéphane Mallarmé" to "Dear Mr Whibley" [Leonard Whibley, in Cambridge]. Paris, 8 March, undated [1894?]. 2 pages in-16. Envelope. Small autograph note from the bookseller Raoul Simonson at the head: "recommendation for Cazalis". In his beautiful, diligent handwriting, Mallarmé writes: ...I find the departure of my friend Mr Henri Cazalis for Cambridge and Oxford at the very moment when I am returning from there so timely and charming that I cannot resist the desire to entrust him with a last friendly and grateful handshake for you and the gentlemen of Pembroke College: he is under the name of Jean Lahor, an excellent poet, he is going to do, by the way, some art studies, in particular at Jesus, and I ask you to kindly facilitate them for him... During his lectures at Oxford and Cambridge, Mallarmé had met the brother of Whistler's brother-in-law, Leonard Whibley (1862-1941), who was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he taught Greek and Latin. The chapel at Jesus College, Cambridge, has an admirable collection of stained glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones. Henri Cazalis was a French symbolist doctor and poet who became known under the pseudonyms Jean Caselli and, above all, Jean Lahor. A respected doctor, his patients included Maupassant and Verlaine. A symbolist poet attracted by images of death, he combined literature with a medical career. Known for "Le Livre du Néant" (1872) and "L'Illusion" (1875), he was called the "Hindu of contemporary Parnassus" because of his penchant for oriental thought. He frequented the Parnassians, made friends with Mallarmé and, with Sully Prudhomme, formed the Société de Protection des Paysages et de l'Esthétique de la France in 1901. He corresponded with Stéphane Mallarmé from 1862 to 1871. His poems were set to music by the composers Saint-Saëns, Duparc, Chausson and Hahn.