PROUST (Marcel) S. l., [around the beginning of March 1904]... Autograph letter signed to [Julia Daudet]. 4 p. in-12 (18 x 11.5 cm) on large mourning paper. Autograph letter signed to Julia Daudet in response to her flattering letter about her translation of John Ruskin's La Bible d'Amiens. "I wish I could do a translation every day to receive letters like yours. Enthused by Daudet's letter, Proust went on to quote Ruskin and Madame de Sévigné: "If at any time I had been able to write one of these adorable sentences, I would not need any flattering testimony, I would have something that would be more precious to me than all of them, even than glorious ones like yours, the satisfaction of my literary conscience, which nothing can replace - and which, alas, I do not have! Very close to the Daudets, Proust ends his letter by praising them. "I can no longer post a letter addressed to the name Daudet without it being a hymn of gratitude, and if I had to say all that I owe to you, to Lucien and to Léon, I would have to write to you every day. A woman of letters, Julia Daudet met Proust through her son, the writer Lucien Daudet. She was one of the first readers of À la recherche du temps perdu and proved to be a wise literary adviser to the writer. Bibliography: Kolb, tome IV, page 75.