This first edition of The Stranger was pulled to 4400 copies and 21 April 1942
divided into eight fictitious "editions" of 550 copies, ours concerning the 5th edition mention. Camus, who was then living in Oran "received a copy - one for his author's copies were lost en route." (See Albert Camus H. Lottman). It was not until August 1942, upon his arrival in France, to cure his tuberculosis he could dedicate a few copies of the original edition. Are known to date only two or three copies of this edition with a contemporary autograph.
Our copy, unknown until then, was offered by Camus René Leynaud, figure
symbolic of the strength and Lyon, until his tragic death, one of the finest
friendships Albert Camus.
The autograph dedication, dated June 1943, is affixed to a copy of the edition
original. It was probably recovered directly from Gaston Gallimard which
Albert Camus visited earlier this month, during his short stay in Paris. (Francis
Sponge mention this meeting in his letter of July 8: "Your action on corridor
GG "). As of June 13, Albert Camus finds René Leynaud Lyon alongside
Francis Ponge and Michel Pontromelli, it will make them the opportunity to read the Misunderstanding.
(Cf. Camus / Ponge correspondence. Note the letter of 8 July 1943). It is during this
stay, no doubt, that Camus offers his friend this item.
René Leynaud entered in the first months in the Resistance, strongly
Albert Camus impressed and no doubt contributed to its more active involvement,
particularly within the Combat network Leynaud which became regional chief in Lyon
under the pseudonym Clair.
This is also to René Leynaud that will be dedicated Letters to a German friend, who is one of the largest intellectual interests Camus Resistance.
Poet and journalist, Leynaud common Camus and Ponge during the years 1943 and 1944.
During his visits to Lyon Camus staying with him in his little room "as his friends know well" the street of the Old Mint, since renamed rue René Leynaud.
This is where the secular and heroic melancholy Christian born immediate friendship and
unwavering. Despite the difficulties of the time, the two men write and often meet in Lyon, Saint Etienne or Paris. They talk about literature: that of their mutual friend,
Francis Ponge: "I spoke with Leynaud my stay in Lyon. I was glad to hear him say that your work seemed the only significant since Mallarmé "(letter of 20 May Ponge 1943); the unpublished Leynaud of it shows that its
few friends, "so they know think badly of me as they think good. "(Preface to René in Leynaud, Posthumous Poems); and, of course, that of Camus, who shares with him his current work as The Misunderstanding and The Plague: "I gave the journal messages an excerpt from my novel I would like to read you. (...) These are the pages you understand, you will see why "(letter to René Leynaud 17 January 1944).
Running will Leynaud for Camus a more tragic loss of his life: "Never a man's death has not sounded so much in me. (...) With him, I saw more clearly and death, far from making me better, as it says in the books consoling, made
my revolt more blind. "Camus leaves little written about Leynaud, refusing to use his memory:" we do not serve him who has used one.
(...) We will keep what he would have preferred the silence of our heart, the memory
attentive and irreparable terrible sadness. " However, some texts in which he speaks modestly this bright meeting among the finest literary proofs of friendship and admiration.
Excerpts from the article published in the journal Combat, October 27, 1944, one day after the official announcement of his death that prevented him from despondency comment on the same day:
"It was difficult to talk yesterday (...) what was for us a terrible, a
terrible news. And yet, (...) we need to talk about it for the memory of the
Resistance guard, not in a nation that may be forgetful, but at least in some attention to human hearts quality. (...)
The senseless tragedy of the Resistance is entirely in this terrible misfortune. Because
Leynaud men had entered the fight, convinced that no being could speak before paying him. The trouble is that the war without uniform was not the terrible justice of the war itself. The bullets hit the front anyone, the best and the worst. But for four years, they are the best that are designated and have fallen, they are the best that have earned the right to speak and lost the power to do so.
That we liked anyway no longer speak. And yet France needed
voice like hers. This proud heart of all, long silent between his faith and
honor would have been able to say the words he needed. But it is now forever silent.
(...) The best of [resistant] died. We say this because we
think deeply, so we're still here is that we have not done enough.
Leynaud has done enough. (...) Perhaps the death of such a man is too expensive for the price
right restored to other men to forget in their actions and in their writings what has been
earned during the four years the courage and sacrifice of a few French. "
On 13 December, Camus address Hélène Leynaud a letter including the following
passages:
"This is a terrible and awful news. I carry with me all this time and I
can detach myself. Today my bitter regret is not having enough said
how much I loved her and how her life was dear to me. But men do not talk about
it. They expect to have lost and then it is too late.
Now we must admit this unjust and stupid death, measure everything we and our country have lost a man like him. (...) It was what I knew of
best and purest. Nothing will ever pay this horrible death. (...) I cried with rage
the learner. Today I have no words to express my sorrow. (...) I will not tell you
not that his sacrifice was not in vain for his country. Nobody knows anything. But I know he agreed with himself and with this truth he defended to the end. That is enough for me to know that he died the heart in peace.
Forgive me, Ellen, I imagine your immense pain and I want to tell you from
I will, but I feel the heart too tight to continue. "
In 1947, he meets with Francis Ponge some unpublished poems and René Leynaud
write a moving foreword life, commitment and the poetry of their mutual friend: "I have not known a single person who love, not loved with all his strength. (...) Who can justify this terrible death? What are the duty, virtue and honors from
what was irreplaceable in Leynaud (...) if the poor alibis of those who
stay alive? "
Finally, it is still Leynaud think that Camus receiving his Nobel Prize in 1957:
"Among the few things that were present in me (...) Rene was the first
rank. Years have passed and I am not comforted him. It was my brother, not by blood but by heart and mind and penalties as in joy, he missed me, darkly, for thirteen years. This excess honor given me, it would have helped me to endure with dignity (...). And that day, it is to him that I thought a heavy heart. "(Letter to Louise Leynaud 13 November 1957)
In December 1944, he wrote his sentence Hélène Leynaud, we read in the Book
Camus these words:
"December. This heart full of night and tears. "