Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini (Ecco, 2010)

Translated from the Italian to English by Eric Karpeles

I’m curious about people’s sexual practices and what they collect. Sometimes both interests come together, but often not. But I feel the need to have a collection is very much in the same category of sexual desire and wants. It doesn’t have to be the same, but I feel the urge to own and curate comes from the same part of the brain. Both can be obsessions and mostly are, so both interests can lead to a better understanding of the person who has captured as well as holding onto something that can be of great importance, or only to that collector. Marcel Proust is my current (and who knows how long this will last) obsession. According to various bibliographies and writings, this is not an obscure obsession. This comes to a remarkable little volume Proust’s Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini, regarding a collector Jacques Guérin (1902-2000), who collected manuscripts by Jean Cocteau, Apollinaire, and others, but his focus was on Proust. As one had commented, "not just a collector but a rescuer of all things Proustian.”

The hero of our story is Guérin, who by trade was the head honcho for D’Orsay parfums, but was also a passionate book-lover and purchased at eighteen a first edition of Guillaume Apollinaire’s volume of short stories L'Hérésiarque et Cie, and also purchased the original manuscripts for Le Diable au corps and Le Bal du comte d'Orgel by Raymond Radiguet from his lover Jean Cocteau when he needed funds for his Opium addiction. The major catch for Guérin is the bed frame where Proust spent a great deal of time working on his masterpiece In Search of Lost Time, and his beloved overcoat, which he wore when going out on the town, as well as using it as a blanket in his cold bedroom.

Knowledge and having physical objects of a beloved artist/writer or even a loved one are essential. Still, at the end of the day, they are just memories of that person positioned in one’s closet or display case. At the moment, I have my mother’s ashes, and eventually, I will let that go, but right now, I find it difficult to remove them from our house onto the wilderness or nature. On one level, I want to make a museum of my mom’s world and possessions, but hardcore economics will not allow me that pleasure. We all have a Proust in our life, and some are easier to display than others, but the emotional pull of a person sticks to one’s soul like glue. It’s not easy to remove without a painful surgical instrument.

Proust’s brother’s widow was only inches away from throwing away the great writer’s possessions and his handwritten (of course) notes into the trash. She was ashamed of being associated with Proust’s reputation and stature in the world, and she had doubts about being in that family due to the politics of marriage at that time and period. The author, Lorenza Foschini, did some excellent detective work here and saw the overcoat in its present home in a museum. We can thank Jacques Guérin for preserving the writings and objects associated with my current obsession, Marcel Proust. And I would like to read a biography of Guérin; he is a fascinating figure of his time.

ISBN: 978-0-06-196567