Paul Claudel: Letters to Audrey Parr

The French playwright, poet and essayist Paul Claudel was born in Villeneuve-sur-Fève, Aisne, on 6 August 1868. He pursued a diplomatic career, and after holding consular posts in the United States, China, Europe and Brazil, was appointed French Ambassador in Tokyo (1922), Washington (1927) and Brussels (1933-5). From the 1890s onwards he published a large body of poetry and drama, including 'Cinq Grandes Odes' and 'Le Soulier de Satin'. In 1939 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge. He died in Paris on 23 February 1955, recognised as one of the most considerable literary figures of his age.

Audrey Manuella Enriqueta Bapst was born on 3 November 1892, the daughter of a French Alsatian father and a British mother of Polish and Brazilian parentage. Raised in England, she married in 1913 Raymond Cecil Parr (1884-1965), a diplomat then acting as Third Secretary in the British Embassy in Rome. It was there that she met Claudel, during a mission he undertook in 1915-16, and their friendship developed when both Raymond Parr and Claudel were appointed to posts in Rio de Janeiro, in 1916 and 1917 respectively. In Brazil, Audrey Parr collaborated with Claudel and his secretary Darius Milhaud in a ballet, 'L'Homme et Son Désir, for which she provided set designs. She and Claudel met intermittently in the 1920s as he and Raymond Parr pursued their careers in various countries. In 1930 Audrey Parr separated from her husband, and settled in London, where she moved in aristocratic and artistic circles, established a lingerie shop, and undertook interior design work. She married Captain Norman Robert Colville, M.C. (1893-1974) in 1938, and subsequently spent much time in Cornwall. On the outbreak of the Second World War she enlisted as a nursing officer in the Red Cross. She was killed in a road accident between Launceston and Egloskerry on 7 May 1940.

With poems, articles and related items.

Donated in January 2001 by Mrs Laetitia Mary Jack, granddaughter of Audrey Parr.

In French and English

Please cite as Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Paul Claudel: Letters to Audrey Parr, MS Add.9591

Most of the letters and several of the verses were edited and annotated by Michel Lioure and published in 'Lettres de Paul Claudel à élisabeth Sainte-Marie Perrin et à Audrey Parr' (Cahiers Paul Claudel, 13, 1990). A letter and a postcard, MSS Add.9591/70 and 109, were not published by Lioure. He misdated MS Add.9591/129 as 25 June 1937, whereas its true date is 25 June 1939: its recipient is addressed as Colville rather than Parr, and the issue of the New Statesman referred to is that with Audrey Colville's translation 'The Song of the Rhône' (The New Statesman and Nation, Vol. XVII, No. 434, new series, 17 June 1939, p. 932).