Belgian author best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels. TLS, one page, 5.75 x 8.25, personal letterhead, July 18, 1986. A revealing letter in response to a fan’s inquiry. In part: “I am a bit like your abstract painter who collects Oriental art. At twenty-five, when I started writing under my own name, i.e. when I abandonned [sic] the ‘potboiler literature,’ I ceased to read novels. On the one part, I did not want to be influenced. On the other part, if a novel had struck me as extraordinary I would have considered it was not worth my while writing, and I would have lost confidence in myself. Morever [sic], if a successful novelist had appeared mediocre in my opinion, I could have felt quite conceited. This does not prevent me from reading a lot, but chiefly biographies, memoirs, chronicles, for it is always interesting to study the life of the ancients, just as much as that of the people around us.” In fine condition, with usual mailing fold. R&R COA.
