Alexis Curvers and Marguerite Yourcenar in the days of friendship

Abstract

In January 1954, Alexis Curvers from Liège sent Marguerite Yourcenar the first issue of La Flûte enchantée, a book of poetry he printed himself. Until November 1956, they maintained an increasingly friendly, even confidential, correspondence, in which Curvers’ wife, the Hellenist Marie Delcourt, took part. They exchanged works and comments, enthusiastic on his part and critical on hers. When she told him she was coming to Liège, he became her impresario and the publisher of her poems (Les Charités d’Alcippe). This final gesture of kindness led to their break-up...