SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de (1900-1944). - Lot 127

Lot 127
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4000 - 5000 EUR
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Result : 2 240EUR
SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de (1900-1944). - Lot 127
SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de (1900-1944). AUTOGRAPHIC MANUSCRIT, [Letter to Save the Children of France, ca. 1941-1942]; 8 pages on 6 in-4 sheets, numbered I-VI, blue and black inks. Patriotic text to save the children of France during the war, which appears to be unpublished. Vibrant plea addressed to those who "fight against Germany" so that they take into account the future generations that must be saved. Whether they like it or not, the combatants and the leaders are invested with a very heavy burden: "it is a death sentence or a pardon that you have to pronounce"... This long speech aims to make men responsible for future generations: "this link that binds the chain of French generations depends on you, the life of the children of France depends on you". They cannot escape their role: "You are today the jurors of the children of France. Didn't you want this power? You are invested with it anyway". The choice is urgent: "It is a matter of life and death at this moment". Hesitating, continuing to think, not acting immediately leads to death: children are "killed" while you decide to save them. And when you have solved your problem by deciding to save the children, unfortunately the children are dead. Not to act is to kill: "Thus a fire I encounter in the forest. I can cancel it with a kick. But I am content to look at it under the pretext that I did not start it and that the forest is not mine. This is true. But if you condemn me as an arsonist you will still be right. Every man is therefore responsible: "Because a man is responsible for the fate of all men insofar as, by the force of things, he is master of it. It is that civilization". The author underlines that once the war is over, France will need the children of today, and he warns with this very strong expression: "Whether Germany is defeated or not, if France has been depopulated, it is the Germans who will cultivate it. In short, saving the children means saving France: "If you let the children of France die, who will occupy and cultivate the land of France? Ploughmen will be needed". Also, the man of today must commit himself and make sure that those of tomorrow can live. And Saint-Exupéry uses the image of the illustrious scientists quoted in Pilote de Guerre: "And when you hear the children of France crying out for milk, tell yourself that it is the Pasteur of tomorrow, the Cézanne of tomorrow, the Renoir of tomorrow, the Bergson of tomorrow who are crying out for milk because they do not yet have another language. And you need it. We all need each other. [...] If I am sitting on the bank of a river and a man is drowning and I can reach out and save him, I am responsible for that man. No one, however, has entrusted me with the responsibility. I have my duties elsewhere. It may even be that I hate this man. I may be encumbered by being the owner of this life. But that is how it is. Since this life depends on me alone, whether I like it or not, I am responsible for it. Saint-Exupéry then sends the men back to their conscience: "And now you who are the jurors will decide". The first sheet begins on another subject, a transmission process: "If on the contrary we permute for example between them at a certain frequency, that is to say ten permutations per second, the direction of the current in the deflectors which drive the cathode ray horizontally"...; on the back, pen tests and first words of a letter. Provenance: Artcurial sale, June 15, 2010, n° 263.
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