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BELLE LETTRE AUTOGRAPHE SIGNÉE À HENRI D'ORLÉANS - Compte de Paris - au sujet de The foreigner :

Thursday [14 March 49]
Dear Count,
You've agreed to act as my conscience director. So much the worse for you.
I need some advice on literary strategy.
Enclosed is a short novel. I'm not asking you to read it in its entirety (it's too badly written), just to sniff it out. You know that I already have two titles awaiting production at the NRF. Should I send them this one? Or should I burn it and give them something else that will obviously be more important to me?
Piovene's example seems a good one. But I've reread a lot of short texts and I can't make up my mind.
Be kind enough to keep this mediocre affair a secret. Indecision is always shameful.
Once again, it's all about the conditions of the problem. You know "Les Épées", which is a nasty little novel. There will be "Perfide" - which is in the tradition of Marcel Aymé, an entertainment - and "Hussard Bleu", a kind of big novel about the war which was for me an opportunity to vary styles. In these circumstances, isn't "L'Étrangère" a different kind of entertainment? That's enough of a - because I'm thinking of more worthwhile things (as they say).
I hope you won't mind too much. Please accept, dear Count, the assurance of my respectful sentiments.
Roger Nimier.

P.S. I'll send you the "Drieu" when it's typed.
But you know, I'm not a journalist at all. Something must to appear on Drieu, it is not really necessary for it to be by me. Besides, my little study is applied, aimed at the ignorant or ill-informed reader: nothing like a 'testimonial' (as they always say).