La Troisième Jeunesse de Madame Prune
Presentation copy inscribed by Loti to Maurice de Lacoste: “À Maurice de Lacoste, bien affectueusement, Pierre Loti.”
Mounted at front: one envelope addressed to “Monsieur M. de Lacoste, 40 avenue Niel / Paris,” with an autograph card signed, addressed to the same recipient (with envelope), dated August 27, 1905.
“Here it is, that good Madame Prune, you little schemer. But now you must earn it, and here is what must be done. I would like the command of the tender of the Javelot (the little boat of the Socoa) for a first-class petty officer of my helm crew, who is already well placed to obtain it. It is urgent. It would be lovely of you to find out how things stand and to tell me whom I should approach to win his case. His name is Genrot, from the island of Bréhat. Above all, do not kill him off for me, as you did for poor Lestic, whom I once recommended to you. A thousand regards, P. Loti.”
Born in Metz in 1864, Maurice de Lacoste entered the naval academy in 1882, fifteen years after Loti. A first-class midshipman in October 1885, he was first assigned to the Far East naval division. It was during these early voyages that he met Pierre Loti, who had been sailing those seas since the same year aboard the Mytho, one of the eleven official transport vessels of the French naval forces in the Far East. Promoted lieutenant in October 1893, he was successively assigned to several battleships and then cruisers, the spearheads of the Navy and the most powerful warships of the period. He was later assigned to the central directorate of naval artillery, then became a frigate captain before joining the general staff in 1909.