Description

FIRST EDITION.
One of the press copies. Large paper editions are available.
Autograph signed letter to Pierre Drieu la Rochelle:

"to Pierre Drieu la Rochelle,
without hesitation
Duhamel
October 28"

Duhamel and Drieu la Rochelle, veterans of the Great War, both occupied a prominent place in the literary milieu between the wars: Drieu, who had already published his Feu Folletin May 1934, was awarded the Renaissance prize for short stories, while Duhamel, thanks in particular to the success of the Chronicle of the PasquiersDrieu was admitted to the Académie Française in 1935. During the Occupation, however, their positions diverged: while Duhamel confronted the Petainist faction of the Académie, Drieu firmly supported the regime. Jean Cassou (A life for Freedom), reports :

Georges Duhamel told me that he met this same Drieu during the Occupation and said to him: "Drieu... Do you know, Drieu, what you're doing at the moment?" The other man made a vague, slightly apologetic gesture: "Yes, yes... obviously... But you understand, I am now too committed... I can't back out now..."

Drieu, for his part, admitted that he approved of the Vichy decision to ban Duhamel's work: "Just because you're a great writer doesn't mean you can pretend to escape the consequences of the political opinions you express."he explains to Léautaud (Literary Journal6 December 1940). The very qualifier of "great writer" needs to be qualified, since he confided, again to Léautaud, that he had "never been a great writer".no taste for Duhamel's literature."(19 June 1941)