Letter Signed ‘Sacher Masoch’, to a French editor, about the publication of his Polish story, Pan Kaniowski by SACHER-MASOCH, Leopold von

6 rue d’Edimbourg, undated [1880s]. In French (with an English translation). 2 page 7 x 4½ inches, in good clean condition, one paper clip indentation, integral blank leaf. Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (1836 – 1895), Austrian writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life, and the author of Venus In Furs (1869). The term masochism is derived from his name. The term masochism was invented in 1886 by the Austrian psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing in his seminal work, Psychopathia Sexualis. Sacher-Masoch writes in this letter: “Almost two months ago I sent you a story ‘Pan Kaniowski’. As I know you are always very busy, I beg you to have a word written to me to let me know if I may hope that this story will appear in our paper. I will be very grateful to you if you will give orders to your clerk to send me the numbers of June 25 and 26 containing ‘Le Mariage Force’ [The Forced Marriage].” [translation]