1 / 3
three old papers are sitting on top of each other on a white surfacetwo papers with writing on them sitting next to each othermany old letters and papers on the table
ROUILLAC

166 - Louis Thomas (1885–1962), writer, poet, journalist and essay…
See original version (French)

Estimate €200 - €400
Sale commission
Description
Louis Thomas (1885–1962), writer, poet, journalist and essayist A collection of correspondence and 1 publication 21 letters written from and to, 1940–1948, addressed to René Benjamin, including: Letter from the author, 21 February 1940, lieutenant commanding the 3rd Company of the 43rd Battalion of North African Pioneers Dear Friend Must I confess that I have a particular fondness for the last two quatrains in the series below? I have 200 Tirailleurs under my command: it’s more than interesting, and at times quite eventful, as when my cycle courier told me, in Aix-en-Provence, before we came here: ‘When you’re a Tirailleur, you see it through to the end.’ And if you see these warriors tending to their rifles… But the journey here was freezing, and the country in which we’re working is poor, filthy and icy, with heaps of manure letting their slurry run off as soon as it rains: those Corinthian bronze-coloured streams are enough to make you vomit. What a curious age we live in!... L.S., 10 June 1940, at the front Dear Friend, Your letter reached me an hour before the announcement that Italy had entered the war. We are of the same mind on this point too: Mussolini has never come to terms with the sanctions… All we can do is take our chances. My view is that we can only hope for victory if the United States enters the fray. Having held this view since last November, I have worked tirelessly to get it into the heads of a number of consular figures. The soporific period of this winter, when they were in the grip of the opium of nonchalance, left me in a state of fury that I could barely contain. Events have spoken for themselves: I have received a letter from Paris (Ministry of Information) stating: ‘We are going to implement your programme’. What never ceases to astound me in our curious country is that ideas and programmes are imposed on those who did not conceive them in the first place… They’ll send people over there who know nothing about the United States, and they’ll let that poor wretch Louis Thomas – classified amongst the disrespectful ones, who, that, what, whose, etc. – act as the earthworks foreman. So, I’m asking for a team more proactive than my own. My anger is too strong for me to bear any longer. Here, my sector has calmed down, after a few bombardments and air raids. However, as they’re pelting us with 105s, one can always wonder whether… But that’s not what’s keeping me awake: what wakes me up is anxiety. I’ve got the ‘great sympathetic’ nervous system of a milliner: it’s suffocating. In the last war, I was calmer. One grows older, even as a lieutenant. I could write: ANXIETY AND RAGE. I cannot escape my fury against the idiots. I’m embarrassed to be talking to you about myself, whilst you’re taking your time getting back on your feet. You must be like me: a sentimental old soul, hiding away… The way one thinks, ponders and trembles so easily on evenings like this! I can no longer read, except for the daily papers… or type up proposals, which I send to Paris, concerning certain things we’re missing, and which current events seem to demand. Tell your son he’s lucky to be fighting in the war as a cadet: as for the rest of us, what can we aspire to? It’s a rather fine rank. We’re young. We suffer less from everything. (...) (You wouldn’t believe how stupid I find that idiotic cannon that shakes the cardboard house where I’m staying every time it fires in the night. I curse him, never tiring of it: proof of an invincible youthful spirit, bordering on rubber-like stupidity… I mean that I bounce back, in spite of myself… What infuriates me, deep down, is having to do an adjutant’s job without putting up a fight: we do have such pretensions…) I am not one to resign myself to things. One must always take action. Pull yourself together! 11 June: Shall I confess to you a folly that has always been mine? I am convinced that, were I at the heart of the matter, we would win. Indeed, I have always been part of the winning team at rugby. And, in the war, my battalion never lost an inch of ground. I then finished the war with the 66th Chasseurs Division, which was always victorious. I wonder if I might bring the same luck with me. (And to think I used to advise against the war... I’d have a lot to say on that subject...)... FIND THE FULL AND DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THIS LOT IN OUR ONLINE AUCTION CATALOGUE
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale René Benjamin, the 20th-century Balzac scholar
Auction location
Auction time 10/06/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like