"J'ai lu avec plaisir ce que vous disiez du témoignage de Cardenas."

Autograph letter signed by Jean Wahl addressed to Marc Barbezat, two and a quarter pages written in black ink on two sheets. Envelope included. Transverse fold inherent to the mailing.
Jean Wahl was Marc Barbezat's examiner for the philosophy baccalaureate examination, and it was then that the two men became friends. In 1940, shortly after this letter was written, Barbezat would found the review L'Arbalète to which the philosopher would contribute by entrusting his very first poems to his young protégé. This review would later become a publishing house that would notably publish Jean Genet's first and scandalous texts.
Long letter notably discussing the sculptor Agustín Cárdenas: "J'ai lu avec plaisir ce que vous disiez du témoignage de Cardenas. (Croyez-vous cependant que les animaliers d'aujourd'hui soient si méprisables ?)" ["I read with pleasure what you said about Cardenas's testimony. (Do you really think that today's animal sculptors are so contemptible?)"] He then lists some "auteurs lyonnais" ["authors from Lyon"] of his acquaintance: "Albert Marie Schmidt [...] qui vient de faire paraîtreune thèse sur la poésie scientifique au 16ème siècle. Il y parle de Maurice Scève. [...] 2° Un jeune russe Balacheff [...] 3° Boas, professeur à l'université de Glasgow, Scotland [...] 4° Marcel Raymond, l'auteur de Baudelaire au Surréalisme [...] 5° Joseph Rouault, spécialiste de Du Bellay [...] Peut-être pourriez-vous écrire à [Georges] Blin [...]" ["Albert Marie Schmidt [...] who has just published a thesis on scientific poetry in the 16th century. He speaks of Maurice Scève there. [...] 2° A young Russian Balacheff [...] 3° Boas, professor at the University of Glasgow, Scotland [...] 4° Marcel Raymond, the author of Baudelaire to Surrealism [...] 5° Joseph Rouault, specialist in Du Bellay [...] Perhaps you could write to [Georges] Blin [...]"]