" ... On est à se demander si le soleil s'est mis en grève ou s'il est allé se promener au pays lointain de la vraie justice et du bon sens ..."

Touching autograph letter dated and signed by Henri Béraud addressed to his mother-in-law while he was incarcerated at Poissy prison (40 lines in blue ink on one recto-verso page) relating his situation as a prisoner while praising the love of the latter and his wife who watch over him and allow him to envisage prison life under better auspices, thanks notably to the parcels that improve his daily fare.
The letter is headed with the infirmary of the central prison of Poissy where Henri Béraud was being treated, creasing traces inherent to being placed in an envelope. A printed stamp of the prison administration "Seen and checked" in the left and upper margin of the letter
Henri Béraud rejoices in his mother-in-law's good health which allows her to visit him again: "... Now that you have found your way back to Poissy, you must not forget it again..." even if the weather is not cooperating: "... One wonders if the sun has gone on strike or if it has gone for a walk in the distant land of true justice and common sense..." thus establishing a parallel between his dark condition as a prisoner and the darkness of the sky.
He hopes to see his wife Germaine again: "... with the hairstyle that suits her so well..." and to receive new photographs of her.
The author of Le Martyre de l'obèse wants to reassure his family thanks to whose support he copes: "Tell them that morale remains strong - and the parcels are wonderful." and ends his letter, remaining the pamphleteer that he is, with an anti-American quip: "I embrace you with my deep and respectful tenderness, although respect and Mickey clash a bit!"
He also requests paper and envelope to escape episodically from the darkness of his prison routine: "... don't forget to put envelope and paper in your letter..." and asks for news of his relatives: "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 (Prix Goncourt 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 in the inter-war 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 British rule, 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 towards anti-parliamentarianism, Anglophobia (Faut-il réduire l'Angleterre en esclavage? published in 1935 and dedicated to Joseph Kessel), antisemitism "without realizing it" according to his friend the 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 would lead to the suicide of the Interior Minister of the Popular Front 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.