"... le colis de jeudi dernier était comme à l'ordinaire magnifique..."

Touching autograph letter dated and signed by Henri Béraud addressed to his mother-in-law while he was incarcerated at Poissy prison (36 lines in blue ink on one recto-verso page) describing his situation as a prisoner while praising the love of his mother-in-law and his wife who watch over him and allow him to view prison life under better auspices, thanks notably to the packages that improve his daily fare.
The letter is on letterhead from the infirmary of the central prison at Poissy where Henri Béraud was being treated, fold marks inherent to mailing.
Henri Béraud knows his mother-in-law is suffering and deplores her absence from last week's visiting room: "... j'ai été peiné de ne pas vous voir jeudi..." ["... I was saddened not to see you Thursday..."] and hopes for her prompt recovery: "... je forme les voeux les plus fervents pour que vos piqûres donnent de bons résultats..." ["... I offer my most fervent wishes that your injections give good results..."] thanks notably to his intervention: "... grâce à mon collègue, dont le père est pharmacien, vous aurez peut-être de l'endopancrine..." ["... thanks to my colleague, whose father is a pharmacist, you may perhaps have some endopancrine..."]
He thanks his dear mother-in-law for all the emotional and material care with which she surrounds him and which beautifies his condition as a sick prisoner: "... le colis de jeudi dernier était comme à l'ordinaire magnifique..." Combien je vous remercie toutes deux de tant de soins et de peine ! " ["... last Thursday's package was magnificent as usual... How I thank you both for so much care and trouble!"]
He also requests paper and envelope to escape episodically from the darkness of his prison daily life: "... ne manquez pas de mettre enveloppe et papier dans votre lettre..." ["... don't forget to put envelope and paper in your letter..."] and asks for news of his relatives: "donnez-moi des nouvelles de votre belle-famille, qui est aussi la mienne, et qui me manifeste tant de généreuse affection..." ["give me news of your in-laws, who are also mine, and who show me such generous affection..."]
A bon vivant native of Lyon, Henri Béraud was a journalist and international reporter (Le canard enchaîné, Le Crapouillot, Petit Parisien, France-Soir and Gringoire) and a prolific writer (Goncourt Prize 1922 for Le martyre de l'obèse and Le vitriol de lune published a year earlier) whose political evolution, moving from the extreme left to the extreme right pro-collaborationist, is characteristic of the inexorable rise of totalitarianisms of the interwar period and the corruption of many French intellectuals. Friend of Roland Dorgelès, Albert Londres and especially Joseph Kessel whom he met in 1922 in Ireland then recently and partially liberated from the British yoke, Henri Béraud defended very left-wing opinions. But after a trip to the U.S.S.R., he began to revise his positions while drifting toward anti-parliamentarism, Anglophobia (Faut-il réduire l'Angleterre en esclavage ? published in 1935 and dedicated to Joseph Kessel), antisemitism "without realizing it" according to his friend journalist Jean-Galtier Boissière. It was the Stavisky affair and its corollary the riots of the fascist and anti-parliamentarian leagues of February 6, 1934 that triggered Henri Béraud's manifest passage to the extreme right, going so far as to break his friendship with his great friend Joseph Kessel. In 1936, his violent articles in Gringoire led to the suicide of Popular Front interior minister Roger Salengro accused of desertion during the First World War. Arrested in September 1944 and sentenced to death on December 29, 1944 for intelligence with the enemy, he was pardoned by General De Gaulle.