"Gide va partir pour l'Afrique. Il semble s'être élevé au-dessus de la politique."

Autograph letter signed by Jean Wahl addressed to Marc Barbezat, two pages written in black ink on a sheet. Envelope enclosed. Transverse fold inherent to the mailing.
Jean Wahl was Marc Barbezat's examiner for the philosophy examination at the baccalaureate, it was then that the two men became friends. In 1940, shortly after writing this letter, Barbezat would found the review L'Arbalète to which the philosopher would collaborate by entrusting his very first poems to his young protégé. This review would subsequently become a publishing house that would notably publish the first and sulfurous texts of Jean Genet.
The letter mentions another philosopher: "I spoke about your previous letter to Gabriel Marcel [...] - And he told me that he knows your father. How curious." Wahl also speaks of the essayist Marcel Brion and other of his illustrious acquaintances: "I do not entirely share your opinion on Marcel Brion (perhaps I know him poorly) but I greatly appreciate [Pierre Jean] Jouve, whom I see often, moreover. [...] I have also seen recently Gide and Bergson [...] Gide is going to leave for Africa. He seems to have risen above politics." The philosopher gives an account of his reading of André Malraux's L'Espoir published the previous month: "I tried in vain to read the Malraux, which must nevertheless contain beautiful pages. (I even saw or glimpsed a few)" He concludes his letter with a consideration concerning the Marx Brothers: "I do not much like the Marx Brothers."