COLETTE (1873-1954). Autograph letter signed to "Vava", her friend Hilda Gélis-Didot, in Perros-Guirec. [Paris, July 21, 1950, according to the postmark]. 3 pp. in-4. Blue paper. Preserved envelope with autograph address. Stamp and postmarks. Colette recounts a visit from her friend Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and adapts her novel "La Seconde" for the theater. "Dearest Vava. The Majuscule lobster and I have arrived, as they say, on the French racetrack [...]! There is only infallibility of the heart. Naturally, I didn't want to contemplate the beast before it was cooked. It was, says Pauline, so alive... That's to say that its flavor was... Breton. Dear Vava, this Friday morning I received your tempting letter, promising what I love best: your presence and Steredenn'Vor. [...]". Colette explains that she is convalescing and is writing a stage adaptation of her novel "La Seconde" with the "brave and useful" Léopold Marchand. She comments: "Bad title, find me one". [The play premiered in 1951 at the Théâtre de la Madeleine, with Maria Casarès in the role of Fanny]. Colette then recounts the visit of an American delegation, made up of "a black doctor and two white Americans". "I was offered... a cure, nothing more, nothing less, but... a serious operation". Then came a second, "much more pleasant" visit the day before: that of Queen Elizabeth. "This charming woman really seemed to have no other worries than me. An elf! What a smile! And drinking champagne like a young girl [...]". She then evokes Twinka, Maurice "the most patient and attentive of companions", Carrère, her daughter Colette, etc. Expert: MMe Mathilde Lalin Leprevost