ARAGON (Louis). 1897-1982. Surrealist writer. - Lot 55

ARAGON (Louis). 1897-1982. Surrealist writer. L.A.S. (Paris, December 6, 1969). 1 p. 1/2 in-4. Reply to a student about his research, Aragon evoking the painful past of 1941. "Loches rings in my memory its bells in a singular way: it was on the outskirts of this town that my wife and I were arrested by the Germans (...). You've undertaken the most difficult task (for me) to help with, that could ever be encountered (...). Nadeau's "Histoire", which is useful to you as it is to many people, is a biased book, to which its author received the help of some of my former friends, and I won't surprise you if I tell you that I dispute (as is fashionable) almost all of it (...). I resolved long ago to let it go. I don't feel like putting this or that companion of my youth on trial (...). Time will add its own lies anyway. And then, just imagine, I'm paying dearly for my survivor status (...)." He complains that he is regularly asked to "talk about Dadaism, as well as Surrealism. These days, I've found myself at loggerheads with people who want me to talk about Ronsard, Camus, Bernanos, Marcel Duchamp, Joe Bousquet (...). It's too late, I don't want to say good things about myself any more than I want to say bad things about others (...).