"Il vaut mieux ne pas penser à l'état du monde."

Autograph letter signed by Jean Wahl addressed to Marc Barbezat, one and a half pages written in black ink on a sheet. Envelope included. Transversal fold inherent to the mailing.
Jean Wahl was Marc Barbezat's examiner for the philosophy examination at the baccalauréat, it was then that the two men became friends. In 1940, shortly after writing this letter, Barbezat would found the magazine L'Arbalète to which the philosopher would contribute by entrusting his very first poems to his young protégé. This magazine would later become a publishing house that would notably publish the first and scandalous texts of Jean Genet.
The philosopher, having had no news from his former student, wonders: "Je n'ai plus de vos nouvelles. Que devenez-vous ? Quitterez-vous Lyon à Pâques ? Je le pense. [...] Avez-vous découvert de nouvelles choses ? Avez-vous lu ?" ["I have no more news from you. What are you becoming? Will you leave Lyon at Easter? I think so. [...] Have you discovered new things? Have you been reading?"] He concludes his letter sententiously: "Il vaut mieux ne pas penser à l'état du monde." ["It is better not to think about the state of the world."]