"... mais dans 2 mois j'aurai 70 ans, je ne le regrette pas car c'est, en quelque sorte, un succès..."

Autograph letter dated and signed by Pierre Mac Orlan (15 lines in black ink) to his young friend the poet Roger Valuet.
Fold marks inherent to postal handling.
Pierre Mac Orlan thanks Roger Valuet for his faithful friendship and the small gifts he sends him.
He would like to visit his friends from Artois more often but his advanced age commands him not to tire himself too much with travel, an inconvenience he nonetheless accepts while ending his missive with this humorous flourish: "... mais dans 2 mois j'aurai 70 ans, je ne le regrette pas car c'est, en quelque sorte, un succès..." ["... but in 2 months I will be 70 years old, I don't regret it because it is, in some way, a success..."]
Originally from Arras, Roger Valuet is a popular writer who signed, under the pseudonym Roger Vilard, numerous detective and espionage novels. At the beginning of his career, he was helped by Pierre Mac Orlan who wrote the preface for his first collection of poems.