VALÉRY Paul (1871-1945) [AF 1925, 38e f]. - Lot 230

Lot n° 230
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Estimation :
400 - 500 EUR
VALÉRY Paul (1871-1945) [AF 1925, 38e f]. - Lot 230
VALÉRY Paul (1871-1945) [AF 1925, 38e f]. L.A.S. "Paul Valéry", Friday [1931], to Léon BÉRARD; 7 pages in 8. Polemic on History after Regards sur le monde actuel. He only wanted to remind (in vulgar language): "In history, there is plenty to eat and drink. And again: the past - insofar as we know it - is usable only insofar as we suppose that it resembles the present. But our present (1890-1931) turns fast and hard. "The historian must know the present and draw a questionnaire from it" Besides - think of "photographing" what happens in the head of people who read history. It's the movies, it's the opera. [] We saw the staffs warming up to Napoleon, and finally falling into holes - God knows if they knew their history! Austerlitz hour by hour, and Clausewitz, page by page! One must be careful with the Navy, and beware of "23,500 tons, traps for billions, torpedoes and bombs falling from the sky! [...] All we need are lively and very poisonous insects and a large fleet of high-speed liners. [...] In '99, I was a leather roundel at the War, artillery equipment. The Fachoda affair (a real operetta in the competent offices) came up. I made this reflection: if we were cut off from Algeria and Algeria was threatened, what would happen [] to the equipment? They wouldn't have enough to make a gargoyle, a shell, a piece of rifle. The situation, I am afraid, is the same" Then he mentions the rumor of a promotion to the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honor, but we prefer the old Francis PLANTÉ, "93 years old"... Attached is the autograph minute of this letter (2 p. in-4) with interesting variants; plus the autograph minute of another letter (1 p. ¼ in-8) to Léon Bérard in November 1925, after his election to the Académie Française against him: "My first movement was to write to you. But how to explain the boredom of winning? [] I assure you, however, of the inner discomfort that tested me when I found myself acting against my sympathies, crossing the desires of de Flers and yours, and feeling a very intimate thorn in that region of the conscience where the politics of results is not prized."
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