Etienne Cabet

Etienne Cabet

The Institute holds small and large archives of Lucien Descaves (1861-1949) and the Paris Commune, as well as the papers of Etienne Cabet. A few years ago the collected inventory was completed of a small but select group of writings by thinkers and actors, such as Gracchus Babeuf (1760-1797), Louis Blanc (1811-1882) and Pierre Proudhon (1809-1865). This collection has since become known as 'French revolutions and revolutionaries 1791-1871'. Accruals to these important old collections have become all but impossible to obtain.

Surprisingly, three letters by Etienne Cabet (1788-1856) surfaced at a French auction and were acquired thanks to our former staff member Heiner Becker. The oldest letter is from 1826, and the two others are from 1846 and 1847.
The letter of 7 April 1846 is addressed to the physician Rostant and reveals that Cabet was a man of actions as well as words.
He writes:

Le porteur de ce billet est un ouvrier que vous avez déja vu et conseillé sans vouloir rien recevoir de lui quoique vous ne le connaissiez pas, ce qui m'attache toujours davantage à vous. Son beau-frère, qui est à sa charge, est atteint d'une maladie scrophuleuse pour laquelle il a cherché à entrer dans un hospice sans pouvoir réussir. Si vous pouvez le recommander et le faire entrer, faites le, je vous prie.
Tout à vous de coeur.

Cabet
Mon gendre va mieux

[The bearer of this slip is a worker you have already seen and advised free of charge, although you do not know him, for which I will always be grateful to you. His brother-in-law, for whom he is responsible, suffers from a glandular disorder and has unsuccessfully tried to gain admission to a hospital. Please recommend that he be admitted, if you can. All my best wishes. Cabet. My son-in-law is recovering.]

Text was taken from On the Waterfront -
newsletter of the Friends of the IISH
Issue 4 (pdf, 656 Kb)