File 12 - Files: 280-285

These files consist of photocopies of handwritten letters, postcards, cartes de visites and telegrams as well as
typed and handwritten transcriptions of letters sent to Émile Zola from January of 1897 to January of 1898.
The contents of these files are divided between discussion around Rome and Paris, and rumblings about Zola’s
increasing involvement in the Dreyfus Affair, culminating with the publication of J’Accuse on January 13, 1898.
As a result, the later files of 1897 contain letters from various newspapers and journals (both in Europe and
the United States) requesting Zola’s opinion on the current social and political situation in France (the Dreyfus
Affair was becoming a massive issue), some of which directly mention the Dreyfus Affair. Additionally, these
files also contain correspondence from the first two weeks after Zola published J’Accuse. As well, the final file
of 1897 (File #283) contains correspondence that discusses the death of Alphonse Daudet. There are a large
number of Letters of Contemporaries in these files, both professional (sent from Ernest Vizetelly) and
personal (sent from Alexandrine Zola), which have presumably been placed here because the contents pertain
directly to Zola’s affairs.