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Maurice Sand Papers

 Collection
Call Number: GEN MSS 1463

Scope and Contents

The Maurice Sand papers contains family and professional correspondence, publishing contracts, writings, drawings, posters, and other material by or about the nineteenth-century author, illustrator, and puppeteer. The collection offers substantial documentation of Sand's theatrical work from the late 1840s to the 1880s; included are holograph scripts, scenarios, or posters for over forty puppet plays created by Sand. The collection also includes three novel drafts, a set of playing cards issued by an unidentified French publisher with humorous additions in ink and pencil by Sand, as well as a manuscript libretto, manuscript music fragments, with vocal lines only, and related correspondence for Callirhoé (circa 1886), an opera by Auguste Bazille (1828-1891) with text by Armand Silvestre (1837-1901) based on a scenario by Sand.

Dates

  • 1833 - 1995
  • Majority of material found within 1848 - 1889

Creator

Language of Materials

In French.

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Box 10: Restricted fragile material. Reference surrogates have been substituted in the main files. For further information consult the appropriate curator.

Conditions Governing Use

The Maurice Sand Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Les Amazones on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, Frederick W. Hilles Fund, Edith and Richard French Fund, and Mary Flagler Cary Fund, 2011-2018.

Arrangement

Organized into five series: I. Correspondence and Contracts, 1848-1929. II. Puppet Theater, 1848-1995. III. Writings, 1841-1886. IV. Artwork, 1833-1887. V. Other Papers, 1853-1960.

Related Materials

Associated material of the same provenance: the Solange Clésinger-Sand Papers (GEN MSS 755) and the Edmond Plauchut Papers (GEN MSS 1462), Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Extent

5.75 Linear Feet (10 boxes)

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.sandm

Additional Description

Overview

The Maurice Sand papers contains family and professional correspondence, publishing contracts, writings, drawings, posters, and other material by or about the nineteenth-century author, illustrator, and puppeteer. The collection offers substantial documentation of Sand's theatrical work from the late 1840s to the 1880s; included are holograph scripts, scenarios, or posters for over forty puppet plays created by Sand. The collection also includes three novel drafts, a set of playing cards issued by an unidentified French publisher with humorous additions in ink and pencil by Sand, as well as a manuscript libretto, manuscript music fragments, with vocal lines only, and related correspondence for Callirhoé (circa 1886), an opera by Auguste Bazille (1828-1891) with text by Armand Silvestre (1837-1901) based on a scenario by Sand.

Biographical / Historical

Maurice Sand (1823-1889), born Jean-François-Maurice-Arnauld Dudevant, was a French writer, artist, and puppeteer. He was the son of author George Sand (1804-1876) and François Casimir Dudevant (1795-1871), and the brother of Solange Clésinger-Sand. Sand studied painting with Eugène Delacroix in the early 1840s, and later wrote and illustrated several novels and monographs on topics ranging from theater history to the natural sciences. Sand directed an amateur puppet theater at the Sand family estate of Nohant from 1847 to 1876, and at his Paris residences, for which he authored plays, designed sets, and sculpted and operated wood puppets. A life member of the Sociétés géologique et entomologique de France and a chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, Sand also served as mayor of the Nohant-Vicq commune in 1848, and from 1875 to 1879.

Sand married Marceline (Lina) Calamatta in 1862, with whom he had a son, Marc-Antoine (1863-1864), and two daughters, Aurore (1866–1961) and Gabrielle (1868–1909). In 1958, Aurore adopted Georges-André Smeets Dudevant Sand (1911-1970), who later married Christiane Sand.

Processing Information

Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.

The processing of this collection involved combining together eight separate accessions of material acquired over time from the same provenance. Information included in the Description of the Papers note, as well as in file titles and descriptions, is drawn from information supplied with the collection by the seller and previous owner, and from a survey of the contents.

Subjects

Related Names

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Maurice Sand Papers
Status
Completed
Author
by Ève Bourbeau-Allard
Date
November 2017
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/
Contact:
P. O. Box 208330
New Haven CT 06520-8330 US
(203) 432-2977

Location

121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Access Information

The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.

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