An Authors Love Author: Prosper Merimee's Publisher: Macmillan And Co Date: 1889 Further Information: Being the unpublished letters of Prosper Merimee's 'Inconnue'fictionThe book is an epistolary novel (a story told in letters) written by the American author Elizabeth Balch (though it was published anonymously at the time). It was written as a highly clever literary hoax and a sequel of sorts to a major 1873 French literary sensation, Lettres à une Inconnue (Letters to an Unknown) by the famous French dramatist and short-story writer Prosper Mérimée (best known as the author of the novella Carmen). Mérimée had spent over thirty years writing passionate, brilliant, and deeply personal letters to an anonymous woman (later revealed to be Jenny Dacquin). When these were published after his death, they became a massive hit, but the public only ever saw his side of the conversation. Elizabeth Balch decided to write the missing half of the romance.flagstaff hil, warrnambool, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, book, pattison collection, warrnambool library, warrnambool mechanics’ institute, ralph eric pattison, corangamite regional library service, warrnambool city librarian, mechanics’ institute library, victorian library board, warrnambool books and records, warrnambool children’s library, an authors love, prosper merimees