[WORLD WAR I]. An archive of letters written between 1913 and 1921 from Captain Paul Perigord (1882-1959) of the French Army to Duchess de Richelieu (1886-1972).

Approximately 60 autograph letters signed ("Paul,", "Paul Perigord") to the Duchess de Richelieu and occasionally to she and her husband the Duc de Richelieu("My dear friend", "My very dear friend"), written between 1913 and 1921, and sent from various locations in France and America.

Captain Paul Perigord enlisted as a private in the French infantry and rose to the rank of captain. He as twice wounded at Verdun, and was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'Honneur. He was sent to the United States in 1917, and eventually served as a professor at the California Institute of Technology, the University of California Los Angeles, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. At President Woodrow Wilson's request, he spoke often on behalf of the League of Nations. The Duchess de Richelieu (formerly Elinor Douglas Wise) married Duke Armand (great-great-nephew of the famous Cardinal) in 1913. At the outset of World War II, she renounced her title and resumed her United States Citizenship.

A FINE ARCHIVE OF CORRESPONDENCE FROM A SOLDIER TO HIS FRIEND

Of his experiences during the war, on 25 April 1914, Perigord writes: "Within a few days, I shall be in the midst of another great battle: may the Lord protect me or rather may he give me the strength to accept anything that must come." On 15 May 1917, he describes a battle he has just survived: "I hope you are not charging my long silence to indifference or forgetfulness. If you knew the hours I have lived you would forgive me immediately. We have just gone nine weeks of the hardest and bloodiest fighting I have ever seen...too many have fallen. The Lord has kept me for other tasks. No doubt, the love and prayers of my good friends are a shield that defies…bullets and shells." He sends support for the Duchess as well: "I see in it your enthusiastic and your hopeful soul struggling to overcome the many difficulties that spring up …as soon as you are free to accomplish anything…You like to struggle. You like to fight, to accomplish. If you were a man you too would be in the trenches. I admire and love your spirit."


Estimate $400-600

For condition and more information, please contact Gretchen Hause at gretchenause@lesliehindman.com.