" .. Oui, il faut espérer que cette année, qui pour moi commence, sera meilleure que celle qui s'achève..."

Fine autograph letter dated and signed by Henri Béraud addressed to his mother-in-law while he was incarcerated at Poissy prison (43 lines in blue ink on one recto-verso page) the day after his 60th birthday.
The letter is on letterhead of the infirmary of the central prison of Poissy, fold marks inherent to being placed in an envelope, Henri Béraud erroneously indicated the year 1942 in the date instead of 1945.
Henri Béraud overflows with thanks: "... quel époustouflant colis cette semaine ! Il n'y manquait que les petites bougies du rituel gâteau..." ["... what a stunning package this week! All that was missing were the little candles from the ritual cake..."] and projects himself into a happier and freer future: "Espérons qu'au 21 septembre prochain nous le mangerons en famille... avec une bougie de plus." ["Let's hope that next September 21st we'll eat it as a family... with one more candle."]
He rejoices in his brothers-in-law's professional successes only to better caricature himself as the ugly duckling: "... vous seriez, chère maman comblée par la vie, si votre gendre ne vous donnait, à lui seul, plus de souci que toute la famille réunie ne vous en a jamais donné. Ce n'est pas mon moindre chagrin, vous le savez..." ["... you would be, dear mama, fulfilled by life, if your son-in-law alone didn't give you more worry than the entire family combined has ever given you. This is not my least sorrow, as you know..."] and as a burden: "... il m'est cruel, après toute une vie de travail, d'être une charge, pour les miens et de ne pouvoir leur apporter que le poids d'une destinée affreuse, encore qu'immeritée, pour vous plus encore que pour moi." ["... it is cruel to me, after a lifetime of work, to be a burden to my loved ones and to be able to bring them only the weight of a terrible destiny, though undeserved, for you even more than for me."]
Henri Béraud is also tormented by his wife Germaine, whom he senses is unhappy although she wants to hide it from him: "... il faut qu'elle me dise tout. J'ai tellement confiance en elle, qu'elle ne doit rien me cacher. Nous la savons si courageuse ! mais mon propre courage a besoin de tout savoir..." ["... she must tell me everything. I have such confidence in her that she must hide nothing from me. We know her to be so courageous! but my own courage needs to know everything..."]
After psychological concerns, Henri Béraud shifts to the material imperatives so crucial for the prisoner he is: "j'aurais besoin d'un tube de brillantine, si toutefois il est possible d'en trouver. Je voudrais aussi que mes caleçons fussent prêts..." ["I would need a tube of brilliantine, if it's possible to find one. I would also like my underwear to be ready..."] even taking interest in the family garden: "... il faudra utiliser, cette semaine au jardin, la seconde moitié des grains envoyés par Pierre. C'est le moyen qu'ils ne soient pas tous perdus..." ["... we'll need to use, this week in the garden, the second half of the seeds sent by Pierre. That's the way to ensure they're not all lost..."]
A bon vivant native of Lyon, Henri Béraud was an international journalist and reporter (Le canard enchaîné, Le Crapouillot, Petit Parisien, France-Soir and Gringoire) and a prolific writer (1922 Prix Goncourt 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 pro-collaborationist extreme right, is characteristic of the inexorable rise of totalitarianisms between the two wars and the corruption of many French intellectuals. Friend of Roland Dorgelès, Albert Londres and especially Joseph Kessel whom he met in 1922 in Ireland, 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 toward 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 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 Popular Front Interior Minister Roger Salengro, accused of desertion during World War I. Arrested in September 1944 and sentenced to death on December 29, 1944 for intelligence with the enemy, he was pardoned by General De Gaulle.