The Court of Appeal of Paris has recently decided that Simone Baulez, a woman that does antique trading, is the owner of 37 of Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran’s manuscripts, that she found in February of 1998 in the basement of the philosopher's house, three years after his death.

Ten years ago, Henry Boue, brother of Simone Boue, Cioran’s life partener, had hired Simone Baulez to completely empty the apartment on 21 Odeon St., 21, where Simone Boue had lived. Baulez said that she found in the building’s basement around 37 spiral notebooks: 5 successive versions of “De l'inconvénient d'être né” ("The Trouble With Being Born"), one of the most known texts written by Cioran, notebooks with preparatory notes for “Ecartelement” ("Drawn and Quartered") and for "Aveux et anathèmes" (“Confessions and Anathemas”), as well as 18 unpublished notebooks which contained pieces of his journal in which he wrote from 1972 to 1980.

“I did exactly what Mrs. Boue’s brother told me. I had to clean the apartment so it could be sold. During these activities I throw away useless stuff and I sell the rest. I usually keep documents and I sort them when I have time”, says Simone Baulez.

So, in December of 2005, Simone tried to sell the manuscripts through Drouot, an auction house, but the people at the Doucet library, finding out about the existence of those notebooks, went to court, requesting the return of the manuscripts. Justice, however, favored Simone Baulez and made her the sole owner of the notebooks, which, at that time, were estimated at around EUR 135.000.

Emil Cioran was born in Rasinari, Sibiu County. His first book, "Pe culmile disperării" (“On the Heights of Despair”), was published in 1934, in Romania. The book won The Committee Award for awarding young writers and The Young Romanian Writer award. Afterwards he published "Cartea amăgirilor / The Book of Delusions " (1935), "Schimbarea la faţă a României / The Transfiguration of Romania " (1936), "Lacrimi şi sfinţi / Tears and Saints" (1937). He died on June 20, 1995. More about Emil Cioran, in our Famous Romanians article here.

Read about his book, 'On the Heights of despair', here.

Alexandru Camburu, alex.camburu@romania-insider.com