ARAGON, Louis (1897-1982)

ARAGON, Louis (1897-1982)

Autograph letter signed « Aragon » [to René Tavernier ?]
N.p. [Nice, c. oct. / début nov. 1942], 1 p. in-4°
One word crossed out by Aragon

A superb letter by Aragon on his poetic commitment during the war

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« Cher Monsieur, cette note, sans en connaître les attendus, j’en avais compris le caractère obligatoire, et pour les termes, croyez bien que je n’y avais rien vu d’autre que ce qui y est, et qui ne me paraît qu’une marque de plus de ce courage dont je parlais. Je ne pense pas que si vous m’aviez lu de bout en bout, cela changerait un iota à ce que vous écrivez aujourd’hui. Je ne pense pas que ce que certaines gens me reprochent aujourd’hui (qui se targuent de s’être mal conduits dans l’autre guerre et qui n’ont pas fait celle-ci, etc.) soit pour quelqu’un comme vous inexplicable, ni toujours à interpréter comme le voudraient vos “correspondants”. Je ne pense pas non plus que nous ayons toujours été d’accord sur toute chose, ni même que nous le soyons aujourd’hui : cependant nous sommes Français, et cela met quelques différences entre vous et moi d’une part, et d’autres gens de l’autre. Voilà pour ce qui n’est pas de la poésie.
Pour la poésie… j’ai lu avec quelque retard ces jours-ci un article d’une dame paru dans L’Effort ¹ et repris dans l’A.F [Action française]. Si je comprends bien, suivant cette personne, ce que j’aurais de mieux à faire serait de ne pas écrire ; eh bien, je crois que ce que je fais de mieux au monde, c’est précisément d’écrire, et que me taire pour éviter les injures ressemblerait fort à de la lâcheté, j’allais dire de la trahison. Mais celle-ci est à la mode. J’écrirai donc tant qu’on me laissera le faire, et tant pis si ce n’est pas longtemps.
Le jour où vous passerez à Nice ou moi à Lyon, j’aimerais vous connaître, si vous n’y voyez pas d’obstacle.
Sympathiquement
Aragon »

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This letter is, in all likelihood, addressed to the poet and resistance fighter René Tavernier (1915–1989). The notes mentioned – and their meanings – appear to correspond to the review Confluences, which Tavernier directed from his estate in Lyon between 1941 and 1943. Tavernier was not without some intuition (or knowledge) of Aragon’s clandestine activities, for he necessarily knew him from his role at Ce soir in the preceding years, as one of the voices of the Communist Party.
Forced to leave Nice with Elsa in November 1942, after the invasion of the so-called “free zone” by German and Italian troops, the couple were first hidden for a few weeks thanks to Pierre Seghers, in a farm at Comps in the Drôme. They were then taken in by Tavernier, in Lyon, at the beginning of 1943. From that point on, Aragon contributed his expertise to several issues of Confluences, pointing out to Tavernier a number of errors in the editing of the review and in the distribution of articles.
The allusions to reproaches against Aragon seem implicitly aimed at Drieu la Rochelle and, by extension, his admirers. One recalls that Drieu had violently criticized his former friend in the NRF, later reiterated in L’Émancipation nationale (Doriot’s widely circulated daily newspaper, of which Drieu was both director and editorialist), portraying him as one of the people responsible for the war of 1940. To this, Aragon had replied with his poem “Plus belle que les larmes.” Drieu himself had not been at the front, but assigned to Information services under Jean Giraudoux. This fact was later pointed out by Paulhan in a rather sharp correspondence with Drieu, specifically about Aragon who, as Paulhan stressed, had indeed been at the front and exposed. Whether Tavernier was aware of this affair or not, it seems that Aragon wanted to make him feel it here.
This invitation to a meeting – a classic move for Aragon, who often operated in this way – falls within the broader movement that would bring him closer to Tavernier, to the point of being sheltered by him and working for Confluences. It was also at Tavernier’s home that Aragon would compose “Il n’y a pas d’amour heureux.”

1 – A Vichy-aligned illustrated daily, L’Effort was founded in 1940 in Clermont-Ferrand by members of the SFIO who had fallen into collaboration. It ceased publication in 1944.

We thank Mr. François Eychart for kindly providing us with these details.