Lettre autographe signée adressée à l’écrivain André du Fresnois

“I do not know whether La Revue critique passed on to you what I had said, by telephone, in reply to your letter. I suggested that, should you need to speak with me, you come to Trie and spend half a day there. I also gave my address until Wednesday: Teleph. 3 – at Trie-Château – Oise Post. / c/o M. Casimir Périer at the Château de Trie-la-Ville / via Trie-Château – Oise. After 15 July: Villa Souberbielle / At Cambo / Basses-Pyrénées. I shall be in Paris on Wednesday morning and, if you wish, we can meet…”

In May 1912, Alain-Fournier became the secretary of Claude Casimir-Perier, son of the former President of the Republic, to whom Charles Péguy had introduced him. He also became the lover of Casimir-Perier’s wife, Pauline Benda-Perier, a celebrated actress known as Madame Simone. He was thus a regular guest at their property in Trie-la-Ville (near Gisors, in the Norman Vexin) and at the Villa Souberbielle in Cambo-les-Bains, near Espelette in the Basque Country, rented every summer by the Periers. It was in these two places that he began writing his second novel, Colombe Blanchet, which was to remain unfinished.

Alain-Fournier stayed in the Vexin until 15 July, before leaving with the Periers for the Pyrenees, where he remained only a fortnight: mobilized on 1 August 1914, he rejoined his garrison at Mirande without passing back through Paris. He fell at Verdun on the afternoon of 22 September.

A deeply moving document, since its recipient, André du Fresnois, met the same tragic fate: mobilization sent the young writer and literary critic of La Revue critique to the Lorraine front within the first days of the conflict. He fell on 22 August during the fighting at Courbesseaux, in the Battles of the Grand Couronné fought to protect Nancy.