Did Verne burn most of personal papers?

[quentin skrabec]

i heard this before but a recent thesis references Jean Chesneaus - question to the scholars - what exsists, what is missing 

quent

[John Lamb]

Interesting one this Quent. I read that he burned his personal correspondence, but what denotes the massive  difference between personal correspondence and personal papers is a moot point. Perhaps Volker can tell us what happened to his 20,000 reference cards.

On Tue, 17 Feb 2026, 20:01 quentin skrabec, <qrsk...@gmail.com> wrote:

i heard this before but a recent thesis references Jean Chesneaus - question to the scholars - what exsists, what is missing 

quent

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[Ariel Pérez Rodríguez]

That’s a myth!
Most of his notes have survived; they are preserved at the museum in Amiens and remain unpublished.

On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 3:01 PM quentin skrabec <qrsk...@gmail.com> wrote:

i heard this before but a recent thesis references Jean Chesneaus - question to the scholars - what exsists, what is missing 

quent

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[Rafael Ontivero]

I saw them.

They have an entire table full of those to show to the public. They are in his main room at 1st floor, near his tiny writing room if I remember well. 

I’m attaching one of the photos I took about that in my last visit (BTW, the top floor, near the tower, is filled with zillions of Verne related merchandise, films posters and you can waste a couple of hours navigating across all of that stuff).

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[quentin skrabec]

Even more interesting is  Jean Chesneaus implies  this limits one's ability to get directly into Verne's head.   Meaning his actual books, early secondary sources, local records and historical context are more important than many have lead me to believe that all real Verne research must be based on "primary" sources.

Quent 

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Subject: Re: [JVF] Did Verne burn most of personal papers?

 

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[John Lamb]

How can you disprove a myth? One way is to prove the 20,000 still exist. 

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[volker.dehs]

I think it was one of the first biographers, Marguerite Allotte de La Fuye or Jean Jules-Verne, who claimed that JV, at the end of his life, burned his personal correspondence. That's possible because we don't know any letters (or only very few documents) sent to him, except for the letters published in journals. Honorine, after a report of her descendant Élisabeth Léger de Viane (1978) , burned several statements of liabilities of Michel Verne after her husbands death.

Some of Vernes working notes have survived and can be consulted in the Amiens Municipal Library. Verne declared himself he destroyed them after use. I published a complete register of what survived in a listing "Les papiers de Jules Verne", in Bulletin de la Société Jules Verne n° 190, december 2015 (so more than 10 years ago!), pp. 66-85.

Rafaels photograph do not represent these documents but Vernes proofs of Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, a Hetzel Catalogue and some fiches of Louis Jules Hetzel's personal library.

There are three sorts of "fiches" by Jules Verne: (a) short notes (1139) on 27 numerated sheets. I published a choice of them in BSJV no. 201 (november 2020), pp. 24-37: "'26 oct. 90, assis sur crocodile.' Extraits des notes de travail de Jules Verne en quatorze étapes".

(b) "Fiches" devoted to special works or subjetcs. I published some of them in different articles, mainly in: "Les romans que Jules Verne n'a jamais écrits", in Pasqual Bernat, Ariél Pérez et al. (dir.): Jules Verne. Ciencia, literatura e imaginación. Ediciones Paganel, 2015, pp. 215-226.

and finally (c), articles and documents of news papers and magazines.

Most of these documents are not online, you have to consult them at Amiens, but it's very difficult to decipher them!
Best,

Volker

[John Lamb]

Thank you Volker, but what happened to his 20,000 reference cards? a) Did they ever exist? b) if so, have you analysed them c) I f not, what do you think happened to them. Best John

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[volker.dehs]

First I don't think that the number of 20,000 which Verne quoted in some of his interviews (Sherard, Belloc-Lowndes) did nor refer only to reference cards, but include the short notes I indicatetd. But it's only my supposition. Verne declared himself (I think in 1896/97, in relation to the Turpin processes) that he usually destroyed his notes and cards after using them, for not repeating himself. The surviving documents at Amiens give a good impression of his working methods and even if their number are limited they are representative of his creative procedure.

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[John Lamb]

Sorry Volker, but if Verne destroyed an unknown amount of  notes and 'cards', how can you say that what is left over is still a 'good impression' ....particularly,  if they are... as you say 'limited'  ...say limited means 10% of the whole. 

Verne is the modern version of an author redacting (with loads of black tape) 90% of  what he does not want to be known .

The vast majority of authors don't redact (destroy / burn) anything....this should fire the inquisitive mind.

It is Verne's own exercise in self censorship to leave behind an impression which is anything other than the actual (good) impression that would otherwise be left. 

Verne decides what  to burn (redact).... and what not to burn (keep for your analysis). 

We can only look at what is left over...but what we can definitely not say is that is the in your words the 'limited' number of documents at Amiens give a 'good impression'

a) it is impossible for you to know this ...

...and 

b) I know information that you do not.

Best John

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[volker.dehs]

ok, what I wrote represents only my subjective impression which reflects, bien sûr, my knowledge on Verne. If you have further information, let us now - it's welcome!

[John Lamb]

Thankyou Volker,

About 20% of what I know about Verne has already been posted on this forum and has indeed been commented on - which is fair enough and respected, whether I agree with the response or not. 

I will place on the forum some posts in the next month, some may seem random and even trivial, but the reason to post is that I know how Vernes literary brain worked, and the more I post the more hopefully that someone like yourself, (who also knows how Verne's literary brain works) will find a common denominator of  literary behaviour. Each post needs to be seen as part of the whole rather than in isolation. 

Best John

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[Rafael Ontivero]

If I remember correctly, they were listed as Verne Cards. But the photo was taken in 2017, near ten years ago… enough time to mix remembrances or be completely mistaken.

Anyway, I vaguely remember another table with some dozens of standard handwritten cards, but I don’t have photos of them. I think it is time for a return (only 4-hour drive from I live 😁).  

[Ariel Pérez Rodríguez]

Hello John,

Some comments (in bold) on your mail: 

Sorry Volker, but if Verne destroyed an unknown amount of  notes and 'cards', how can you say that what is left over is still a 'good impression' ....particularly,  if they are... as you say 'limited'  ...say limited means 10% of the whole. 

First, we do not actually know whether the number of cards was 20,000, nor whether that figure was exact or simply an approximate number Verne mentioned in an interview. The total quantity remains uncertain.

What Volker is telling you, as I understand it, is that the surviving material — whatever its proportion — is sufficient to understand Verne’s working method. What matters most is not the absolute number of cards originally produced, but the type of notes he made, the structure of his annotations, and how he used them in the development of his works.

Whether 10%, 30%, or 50% survived is ultimately secondary. As researchers, we must work with what is available to us today.

 

It is Verne's own exercise in self censorship to leave behind an impression which is anything other than the actual (good) impression that would otherwise be left. 

I don't think that this necessarily constitutes self-censorship. Have you considered that it might instead have been a practical method of organization? Destroying used or redundant material could have been a way for him to avoid repetition, to maintain clarity in his documentation system, or to control which notes remained active in his working archive. Many writers refine, discard, and reorganize their materials as part of their creative process without that implying an attempt to manipulate posterity. 

  

b) I know information that you do not.

Well, that is certainly intriguing. If you do possess additional information unavailable to the rest of us, I’m sure we would all greatly benefit from seeing it. Scholarship thrives on shared sources and documented evidence, after all. Unless, of course, you happen to have a direct line to Jules Verne himself — in which case, do enlighten us 🙂

Best,
Ariel

[Rafael Ontivero]

We could parallel this with Isaac Asimov’s own papers. 

He mentions in one of his biographies that he was extremely surprised when someone from a university (I don't remember which one) asked him what he did with his papers after finishing a book. 'I throw them away,' he said. The other guy threw his hands up in horror, and from then on, Asimov periodically sent all his junk to that university.

I imagine it was much the same with Verne: once the research for a work was finished, if he didn't intend to use it for anything else, he would destroy it. We're used to having hard drives that can hold millions of documents these days, but I picture Verne (and Asimov) having to wade through thousands of useless scraps of paper. They surely went straight into the trash.

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[Tad Davis]

I know this is largely off-topic, but I’ve long had an interest in literary biography, and from that standpoint alone, the idea of a writer destroying any of his or her working papers or correspondence fills me with horror. Samuel Johnson burned most of his private papers just before he died, guaranteeing that our view of him would be forever overshadowed by what a fawning, disreputable fop had to say about him. Jane Austen’s sister burned almost all her letters, destroying any chance of understanding who she may have been outside her writings. And I make no apology for wanting to know who she was outside her writings. The case is obviously not so extreme with Verne, but I still cringe at the idea of writers throwing anything away. (How could you ever know that you’ll never want to make use of that bit of detail again?)

— 

Tad Davis

tad.dav...@gmail.com

On Feb 18, 2026, at 6:12 AM, Rafael Ontivero <rafael....@gmail.com> wrote:

We could parallel this with Isaac Asimov’s own papers. 

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[quentin skrabec]

YEs

I had written six biographies, mostly of American industrialists

Amazingly two also burned ( or their wives did) all personal material at death— Edward Drummong Libbey (glass) and Andrew Carnegie---- seems like it was a thing

 Second and most importantly, I believe those who have access to Verne's personal papers should share them in English so more can truly contribute to Verne research - you know I have always worried about a priesthood of Verne scholars as a type of necessary oracle that requires their approval. 

THOSE who are true scholars should make this material available to all- the technology is there

With love

quent

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Subject: Re: [JVF] Did Verne burn most of personal papers?

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[Ariel Pérez Rodríguez]

There's a projet of the Spanish Society to transcribe all of Jules Verne notes and published them first in French and then we can publish them inn other languages, like for instance, English. First, they have to be published in French. 

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[John Lamb]

Dear Volker

Marie Belloc’s article in Strand Magazine 1895 states,

‘A number of cardboard pigeon holes occupying however wonderfully little space, contain the twenty odd thousand notes garnered by the author during his long life.’  

No mention of cards, maybe other sources state this. Having said that, it is the quality of what is missing (something we will never know) rather than the quality (see below).

 

Hello Ari, you state

“What Volker is telling you, as I understand it, is that the surviving material — whatever its proportion — is sufficient to understand Verne’s working method”.

 

If we turn this on its head and imagine finding in an old safe (sounds familiar), containing all the material that Verne supposedly destroyed (the relevant material in Quent’s original question), then I am sure the first thing that Verne scholars would try to do would be to analyse every word to ‘better understand Verne’s working method’.

The inquisitive scholars might even be able to end up saying, that based on just a few specific recovered items out of thousands that

‘This gives us a whole new insight into Verne’s working method’

This is, as I say, a hypothetical situation, but it cannot be ruled out, because we do not know what was contained in the material Verne destroyed and we never will.

Say for example we discovered an early contract with James Gordon Bennett’s New York Herald with a number of stipulations in the fine print, it may help to explain the fawning inclusion of that newspaper as product placement in Verne’s novels, but it would be the fine print that could tell us a lot more in his plot narratives.

I agree with you, therefore, the amount destroyed may well be secondary, but it is the content and quality of what was destroyed which may be relevant.

 

Perhaps it might be more accurate to say

that the surviving material — whatever its proportion — is probably sufficient to understand Verne’s working method

 … so keeping open a window of initially speculative research that could later yield dividends.

What, hopefully we agree on and we can do is look for patterns in Verne’s existing written material which illustrate a far greater level of research by Verne than previously thought, and for which strangely there is only basic / no evidence in his notes (presumably because they were destroyed).

 

This I feel is what Quent has attempted to with Begum’s Millions (please correct me if I am wrong Quent) and I have attempted to do with 20,000 Leagues on a less formal level via this forum.

 

I therefore don’t think we can rule out Quent’s phrase regarding the burning of personal papers when he says.

Even more interesting is Jean Chesneaus implies this limits one's ability to get directly into Verne's head.   Meaning his actual books, early secondary sources, local records and historical context are more important than many have lead me to believe that all real Verne research must be based on "primary" sources.

I agree with Jean Chesneaus and Quent, and this is particularly interesting to me as I identify possible ‘historical context’ in Verne’s works (particularly the American Civil War) and look for patterns to quote the phrase to get directly into Verne's head.

 

The fact that, as Volker says Verne destroyed most of his correspondence towards the end of his career, tends towards the idea of some self-censorship rather than ‘tidying up’ evidenced throughout the remainder, but that is my subjective view. The important thing is the self-censorship idea spurs me on rather than closes the door and helps ‘fire the inquisitive mind’ rather than settle for what we have already got as being as you say ‘sufficient’.

 

One final point, just to illustrate how initially speculative ideas using newly identified patterns can develop over time into universally accepted theory.

 Please consider Alfred Wegener’s Theory of Continental Drift of 1912.  Wegener initially used the outline of continents, fossil evidence and the formation of the Himalayas to suggest the continents had moved outwards from one landmass he called Pangea. His ideas were dismissed because he could not explain why continents moved.  

The geologist Arthur Holmes in the 1930’s suggested the idea of thermal convection currents in the earth’s crust so addressing the weaknesses of the ‘why’ in Wegener’s theory, which nevertheless was still largely ignored.

Harry Hess in the 1960’s suggested the idea of seafloor spreading with new crust being created in the centre of oceans and then moving in both directions outwards, one side being a mirror image of the other. Wegener was still ignored.

It was only when the rocks were both radioactively dated and mapped en masse for magnetic reversals* that a parallel pattern either side of mid ocean ridges could be observed that was an exact mirror image of the other side in both age and polarity. 

Essentially this was like having a supermarket bar code pattern (a massive amount of spatial data) on one side and it mirrored on the other.

 

The result is that given all this statistical data that Wegener’s Theory of Continental Drift is now universally accepted.

I would say that my position in this forum is akin to Wegener in 1912, but I am hoping there is the odd Harry Hess in the background.

My 100 links between the CSS Alabama and the Nautilus was my first ‘barcode’ clue for 20,000 Leagues, basically a mass of distinct linked data, but there are probably 500 similar links re Verne’s other novels, and obviously if more data needs to be presented – then that is fine.

I also need to contextualise all this data (the 'why') in terms of European and American geopolitics between 1850 and the 1870’s. That is also fine.

Tad, totally agree with you re author’s destroying their papers.

 

Best John

 

*Magnetic reversals were alluded to by Verne in A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (in the Liedenbrock Sea bringing the travellers back to Port Grauben).

 

 

 

 

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[William Butcher]

Some scholars writing in French might not have sufficient English to publish adequately in that language. And the onus is not really on them to do the work of translation.

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From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of quentin skrabec <qrsk...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2026 10:56 PM

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[quentin skrabec]

Hi

Translation is not a problem with AI so French is fine. 

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Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2026 7:11 PM

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[rfb...@aol.com]

This was routine until the 20th Century for almost all walks of life. Most US Presidents destroyed their personal papers (rather than found "Presidential Libraries") -- when Bess Truman (the last "old-fashioned" First Lady) intended doing that to Harry Truman's, it was pointed out to her that her husband had started such a Library and a compromise worked out.
Ross

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