Princess Marthe Bibesco: An Inventory of Her Papers at the Harry Ransom Center Descriptive Summary Creator: Bibesco, Marthe, 1886-1973 Title: Princess Marthe Bibesco Papers Inclusive Dates: 1768-1976 Bulk Dates: (1904-1973) Extent: 358 document boxes (150.36 linear feet), 7 oversize boxes, 1 oversize folder. Abstract: Correspondence, handwritten and typed manuscripts, galleys and page proofs, notes, photographs, clippings, financial documents, ephemera, Napoleonic-era documents, and works by others comprise the Princess Marthe Bibesco Papers and document her life, writings, and associations with notable European authors, artists, and heads of state. Numerous documents contained in this collection predate the birth of Princess Bibesco and were acquired through family. Language: Materials written in French, English, Romanian, German, Italian, and Greek. Note: We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which provided funds for the processing and cataloging of this collection. Access: Open for research. Administrative Information Acquisition: Purchases and gifts, 1959-1976 Processed by: Processed by: Monique Daviau, Kristen Davis, Jennifer Hecker, and Emily Painton, 2006 Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center
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Princess Marthe Bibesco:
An Inventory of Her Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
Abstract: Correspondence, handwritten and typed manuscripts, galleys andpage proofs, notes, photographs, clippings, financial documents,ephemera, Napoleonic-era documents, and works by others comprisethe Princess Marthe Bibesco Papers and document her life, writings,and associations with notable European authors, artists, and heads ofstate. Numerous documents contained in this collection predate thebirth of Princess Bibesco and were acquired through family.
Language: Materials written in French, English, Romanian, German, Italian, andGreek.
Note: We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Andrew W. MellonFoundation, which provided funds for the processing and catalogingof this collection.
Access: Open for research.
Administrative Information
Acquisition: Purchases and gifts, 1959-1976
Processed by: Processed by: Monique Daviau, Kristen Davis, Jennifer Hecker, andEmily Painton, 2006
Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center
Biographical Sketch
Princess Marthe Bibesco, a Romanian aristocrat raised mainly in France, enjoyed asuccessful literary career during the first half of the twentieth century. Although neverformally educated, Princess Bibesco was an avid reader of classical literature andhistory, and she possessed a deep appreciation and understanding of contemporaryEuropean politics. Throughout her life she associated with the elite and powerful on theEuropean continent, as well as noted literary and artistic figures.
Born Princess Marthe Lucie Lahovary on January 28, 1886 in Bucharest, MartheBibesco grew up speaking French, as was common among high-ranking members of theRomanian nobility. As the second daughter of Prince Jean Lahovary, Minister ofRomania in France, and Princess Emma Mavrocordato, she spent her childhood in Paris,Biarritz, and Balosti, her family's estate in Romania. Although not formally educatedbeyond private primary school in Biarritz, she received additional instruction from herFrench governess. Her father, uncle, and maternal grandfather were also instrumental incultivating her interest in history and politics.
In 1892, Marthe's brother Georges, only son and heir to the Lahovary name and fortune,died of typhoid fever. His early death deeply marked the family; their mother was inperpetual mourning over his passing, and Marthe's own worldview and spiritual beliefswere heavily influenced by this misfortune. Her elder sister, Jeanne, died of cholera in1911, and her younger sister Marguerite killed herself seven years later. Marthe's motherand favorite cousin also took their own lives.
Engaged at the age of fifteen, Marthe Lahovary married a distant cousin, PrinceGeorges-Valentin Bibesco in 1902. He was an important industrialist from adistinguished Romanian family, served as ambassador to France, and was a notedcivilian aviator. He was instrumental in founding the International Aeronautic Federationand later became its president. At the age of seventeen Marthe nearly died while givingbirth to the couple's only child, Valentine. Theirs was not a happy alliance, and Georgeswas unfaithful throughout their union. During the early years of her marriage Marthefound solace in reading and writing.
In 1908 she published her first novel, Les huits paradis (The Eight Paradises), a traveldocumentary based on a diplomatic trip to Persia by automobile with her husband. It woncritical acclaim and was crowned by the French Academy. Two of her later novels alsoearned literary distinction: Catherine-Paris (1927), selected by the Literary Guild in theUnited States; and Croisade pour l'anémone (Crusade for the Anemone, 1931), chosenby the Catholic Book Club of New York. Although a celebrated author and laureate ofthe French Academy, Marthe Bibesco was never elected as a member of that body. Shewas, however, proud of her election to the Royal Belgian Academy of French Languageand Literature in 1955. Other honors she received included nomination in 1958 to theAcadémie des Jeux Floraux de Toulouse, a literary society founded in the fourteenthcentury, and designation as a chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1962.
Princess Bibesco's literary works fall into several categories. Her early fictional works
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Princess Bibesco's literary works fall into several categories. Her early fictional worksare loosely based on her own life and experiences abroad. Non-fiction works includebooks, stories, and articles about the many illustrious people she knew intimately:writers, politicians, diplomats, monarchs, and aristocrats. Not only did she produce alarge body of published works, she was also a prolific letter-writer. She correspondedextensively with friends and family and used some of their letters to create works such as La Vie d'une amitié: Ma correspondence avec l'abbé Mugnier, Churchill ou le Courage(Sir Winston Churchill: Master of Courage), and Échanges avec Paul Claudel. Herliterary endeavors also included screenplays and theatrical pieces, as well as severalhistorical novels written under the pseudonym Lucile Decaux.
Marthe Bibesco counted among her circle of friends several monarchs, the closest ofwhom were King Alfonso XIII of Spain, the Kronprinz Wilhelm of Germany, and KingFerdinand I of Romania. Two of her most beloved friends were British Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald and Lord Thomson of Cardington. Lord Thomson served as Britishmilitary attaché in Romania during the First World War and later became Air Minister ofBritain. He was killed in an aircraft accident in 1930. Other powerful men she knew wellincluded Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, French senator Henry de Jouvenel, andCommanding General of French Forces during World War I, Prince Charles-Louis deBeauvau-Craön. The princess also befriended literary figures such as Edith Wharton,Marcel Proust, Jean Cocteau, Anatole France, Rainer Maria Rilke, Enid Bagnold, PaulValéry, and Paul Claudel. One of her closest friends was the abbé Arthur Mugnier, whois known for converting J. K. Huysmans to Catholicism.
Princess Bibesco experienced first hand many of the tumultuous events of earlytwentieth century Europe. During World War I she served as a nurse in a Bucharesthospital under German occupation but was forced to leave the country before the war'send. She also hosted unofficial diplomatic meetings in her palaces Posada andMogosöea, bringing together representatives of warring governments who could notmeet or negotiate in public. In 1938, as a guest of the exiled Spanish king, she witnessedthe arrival of Hitler in Rome on his official visit to Italy. Marthe's family was torn apartand her fortune lost during World War II and the subsequent Communist takeover ofRomania. She fled to France in 1947, never to return to Romania, but her daughter andson-in-law did not manage to escape. They were placed in detention for nearly nineyears by the Communist government.
The postwar years brought financial difficulties to Princess Bibesco. Then in her sixties,she was responsible for supporting her two grandsons while their parents were incaptivity. She had no regular source of income after her estates in Romania wereconfiscated by the Communists. In order to care for her family and live morecomfortably, she sold family jewelry she had taken out of Romania. She also dependedon the kindness of her wealthy friends. Writing became her livelihood rather than merelya lucrative hobby. With her numerous literary connections she was able to write articlesand stories for publications such as Paris-Soir, The Saturday Evening Post, L'Illustration, Les Nouvelles Littéraires, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. Although she wasproductive during this time, she was unable to complete what she considered her life'swork, La Nymphe Europe, which would be a multi-volume history/genealogy of Europebased on her intimate knowledge of the European aristocracy. Despite years of researchand preparation, only one volume, Mes vies antérieures, came to fruition during her
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lifetime. The second volume, Où tombe la foudre, was published by the executor of herestate after her death.
Princess Marthe Bibesco died quietly at the age of eighty-seven on November 28, 1973in her home on the Île Saint Louis in Paris.
Sources:
In addition to gleaning information from the Princess' papers, the following biographicalsources were consulted:
Diesbach, Ghislain de. La Princesse Bibesco: La dernière orchidée. Paris: Perrin, 1986.
Sutherland, Christine. Enchantress: Marthe Bibesco and Her World. New York: Farrar,Straus & Giroux, 1996.
Scope and Contents
Correspondence, handwritten and typed manuscripts, galleys and page proofs, notes,photographs, clippings, financial documents, ephemera, Napoleonic-era documents, andworks by others comprise the Princess Marthe Bibesco Papers and document her life,writings, and associations with notable European authors, artists, and heads of state.Most of her correspondence is written in French or English, with some in Romanian,German, Italian and Greek. Numerous documents contained in this collection predate thebirth of Princess Bibesco and were acquired through family inheritance.
The Princess Marthe Bibesco Papers are organized in four series: I. Correspondence,1903-1973 (247 boxes), consists of correspondence between Bibesco and othercorrespondents; II. Works, 1908-1973 (80 boxes + 6 oversize boxes) detailing thepublished and unpublished literary pursuits of the Princess; III. Personal Papers,1873-1963 (2 boxes + 1 oversize folder), consists of financial records, photographs, andother miscellany; and IV. Correspondence, Works, and Papers of Others, 1768-1976 (30boxes + 1 oversize box), contains manuscripts, letters, and assorted other materialsbelonging to others that found their way into Bibesco's possession. This series alsoincludes the Rapetti Collection, a Napoleonic-era collection of letters, contracts, andproclamations, which were inherited by Princess Bibesco.
The bulk of the Bibesco collection is correspondence in Series I. Incoming and outgoingcorrespondence is interfiled and arranged alphabetically by correspondent. Among thePrincess' correspondence are large groups of personal letters between Bibesco and herparamours Charles-Louis Beauvau-Craön, James Ramsay MacDonald, Lord Thomson ofCardington, with her cousins Antoine and Emmanuel Bibesco, her daughter, PrincessValentine Ghika-Comanesti, her husband, Prince Georges Bibesco, and with otherfriends and members of the Lahovary and Bibesco families. Authors she correspondedwith include Paul Claudel, Jean Cocteau, Reynaldo Hahn, André Malraux, Paul Valéry,Max Jacob, Henri de Jouvenel, Enid Bagnold, Anna de Noailles, Anatole France, Sonia
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Max Jacob, Henri de Jouvenel, Enid Bagnold, Anna de Noailles, Anatole France, SoniaCahen d'Anvers, Lady Maie Casey, Prince Felix Youssoupof, and Maurice Chevalier.Also present are business letters between the Princess and various agents and publisherssuch as Plon, Knopf, Bernard Grasset, and others. Bibesco also corresponded with anumber of royals of the era, including Marie of Romania, and nuns, priests, and otherCatholic figures, especially her confidant l'Abbé Arthur Mugnier. Members of theextended Bibesco, Lahovary, and Ghika-Comanesti families with the same first namesare identified by their relationship to the Princess, i.e., Valentine Bibesco, the mother ofPrince Georges Bibesco, is also identified as "mother-in-law." Marthe Bibesco'sdaughter, Valentine, is known by her married surname, Ghika-Comanesti, within thecollection. An index of Princess Bibesco's correspondence is available in this findingaid.
The arrangement of Bibesco's manuscripts in Series II. Works is alphabetical by title.Major works represented in this series include Alexander of Asia (Alexandre asiatique),Au bal avec Marcel Proust, Câline, Catherine-Paris, Le destin de Lord Thomson ofCardington, Échanges avec Paul Claudel, Le jeune homme dans le sarcophage, LaNymphe Europe, Le perroquet vert, Katia, and La vie d'une amitié. Also covered hereare various articles and essays Bibesco wrote for publication in periodicals such as theSaturday Evening Post, and unpublished ruminations and diaries. Found in the worksseries are numerous spiral notebooks possibly providing insight into the research andnote taking that preceded her published works. Also included is one large bound volumewhich once contained letters sent to her concering the publication of Le perroquet vert.
Series III. consists of items produced by or for Princess Bibesco but which are notcategorized as works or correspondence. These items include drawings, financialrecords, legal papers, postcards, photographs, receipts, contracts, a registry of Romanianbirths, blueprints, and souvenirs of her trip to the United States.
Series IV. is divided into three subseries: A. Correspondence, 1823-1974 (11 boxes); B.Works by Others, 1877-1960 (9 boxes); and C. Rapetti Collection, 1768-1866 (10 boxes+ 1 oversize box). Third-party correspondence in Subseries A. is arranged alphabeticallyby recipient. It includes numerous letters between Valentine Ghika-Comanesti andothers honoring the Princess after her death in 1973. Also included here are lettersbetween members of the Lahovary family and correspondence to and from l'Abbé ArthurMugnier. The subseries Works by Others is arranged alphabetically by author name andcontains manuscripts and galleys written by Bibesco's friends and family, including herfather, Jean Lahovary, her uncle, Leon Lahovary, Christopher Birdwood Thompson(Lord Thomson of Cardington) and Charles-Louis Beauvau-Craön. It also contains ascrapbook with clippings of articles used for research or to document reviews of thePrincess' various books. Subseries C, the Rapetti Collection of Historical Papers,consists of Napoleonic-era historical documents belonging to Count Pierre-NicolasRapetti, Secretary of the Commission Charged with the Publication of the Letters ofNapoleon I. These papers were inherited by Princess Bibesco from her mother-in-law,The Princess Valentine de Caraman Chimay, who was a granddaughter of Napoleon Ivia one of his mistresses, Emilie Leroy. The Rapetti Collection contains hundreds ofcertified copies of documents in the French National Archives (Le centre historique desArchives nationales). The existence of the originals is now in some doubt, since theywere removed from Paris during the German occupation and are believed to have been
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destroyed. The Rapetti Collection maintains its original order, though it is unclear whatthe assigned numeric sequence indicates.
Related Material
Correspondence and works by Princess Marthe Bibesco are also found in the CarltonLake Collection and the William Bradley Agency Papers at the Ransom Center. A soundrecording of a 1954 radio interview of the Princess has been transferred to the SoundRecording Collection.
Due to size, this inventory had been divided into two files. The files may be accessed byclicking on the highlighted text below:
Princess Marthe Bibesco Papers--Series I. [This page]
Princess Marthe Bibesco Papers--Series II.- Series IV. and Index of Works
Princess Marthe Bibesco Papers--Index of Correspondents
Index Terms
Correspondents
Bagnold, Enid.
Beauvau-Craön, Charles Louis Juste Élie Marie Joseph Victurnien, prince de, 1878-.