"J'avais l'impression qu'il n'y aurait pas de guerre. J'aurais voulu que ce fût par une reculade d'Hitler qu'elle n'eût pas lieu."

Autograph letter signed by Jean Wahl addressed to Marc Barbezat, one and a half pages written in black ink on one sheet. 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.
Interesting letter full of bitterness, written on the eve of World War II: "J'avais l'impression qu'il n'y aurait pas de guerre. J'aurais voulu que ce fût par une reculade d'Hitler qu'elle n'eût pas lieu. Le destin ou la faiblesse des hommes en a décidé autrement. Nous avons manqué - et l'Angleterre aussi - d'hommes qui fussent à la hauteur des circonstances. C'est bien triste." ["I had the impression that there would be no war. I would have wished that it were through Hitler's retreat that it would not take place. Fate or the weakness of men decided otherwise. We lacked - and England too - men who were equal to the circumstances. It is very sad."] Wahl relates his meeting with the poet Lucien Jacques, also translator of Moby Dick: "Sans le roman traduit de Melville, les Cahiers du Contadour me paraissent de second ordre. [...] Lucien Jacques est très sympathique." ["Without Melville's translated novel, the Cahiers du Contadour seem second-rate to me. [...] Lucien Jacques is very likeable."] He ends his letter: "J'admire beaucoup le talent du conteur Panaït Istrati. Conteur qui fait surgir les émotions comme celles que fait naître la musique." ["I greatly admire the talent of the storyteller Panaït Istrati. A storyteller who brings forth emotions like those that music creates."]