Vent de mars
First printing (no deluxe-paper copies) — this copy printed for the press.
Presentation inscription (on a loose leaf): “à Christian Melchior-Bonnet, ce livre que j'ai tâché de faire d'une autre matière que les livres de la campagne et de la mémoire du peuple des campagnes, - et refondu, je vois qu'il se présente comme une œuvre nouvelle, que je lui serai bien reconnaissant de signaler. Son ami, Henri Pourrat.”
Publisher's insert preserved.
Vent de mars presents itself as a diary of rural France on the eve of war, during the collapse and defeat of 1940. In awarding this text its prize, the Académie chose, in the particular circumstances of the Occupation and the Vichy government, to honor a work celebrating the countryside, rural memory and a rooted national identity. The theme resonated directly with official propaganda promoting a “return to the land.”
This alignment was reinforced by Pourrat’s proximity to Marshal Pétain: on 14 October 1940, Pétain visited Ambert at Pourrat’s invitation, for a symbolic meeting at the Richard-de-Bas mill. Pourrat then published Le Paysan français and Le Chef français, two texts dedicated to the Marshal and his policies. Pourrat’s own trajectory, however, proved more complex and, in truth, far from ambiguous: he quickly distanced himself from the Corporation paysanne and, from Ambert, gave assistance to the Auvergne maquis and to several Jewish families who had taken refuge in the free zone. His correspondence with Jean Paulhan attests to concrete solidarity: regular shipments of charcoal, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes and honey sent to Paris during a period of severe rationing.
Today the Centre Henri-Pourrat in Clermont-Ferrand holds a unique collection devoted to his work and to popular literature: manuscripts, documentation, more than 20,000 letters, and his personal library.
From the “Prix Goncourt” library of Gérard Pouguet, with bookplate.