BRASILLACH, Robert (1909-1945)

BRASILLACH, Robert (1909-1945)

Autograph letter signed « Robert Brasillach » to Thierry Maulnier
[Paris, late 1930s], 1 p. in-8° on Je suis partout‘s letterhead
Central fold mark, slight browning on corners
Slight ink smudges testifying to a folding by Brasillach when the ink was not yet dry

Brasillach does a favor in exchange for an article from his friend Thierry Maulnier, then thanks him for his favorable review of his work on Corneille

« Cher vieux,
Plus de permis. Mais veux-tu un demi-tarif ?
Réponds tout de suite pour si on te le demande. MAIS (faisons un petit chantage), envoie un article en échange. Tu seras gentil.
Vivre esclave ou mourir !
Bien amicalement, et merci de tes articles sur Corneille, où je trouve (ce qui ne m’étonne pas) enfin quelqu’un qui a compris.
Robert Brasillach »

Fellow students at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Brasillach and Maulnier, along with six other friends, made their mark by publishing Fulgur in 1927, a serialized detective and fantasy novel. While the two friends cultivated a certain Maurrassian ideology close to the Action Française in the early 1930s, the ideological trajectory of Brasillach, who became editor-in-chief of the collaborationist weekly Je suis partout in 1937, took a radical turn. Having become the champion of collaboration, he conveyed his hatred of the Jews, the Popular Front, the Republic, and his admiration for the Third Reich, whose triumph in France he had always hoped for.
During the rout in the spring of 1940, the editors of Je suis partout, which included Brasillach, were summoned by the police for threatening state security, along with a number of fascist intellectuals. The final issue was urgently entrusted to Thierry Maulnier, an occasional contributor to the weekly. The newspaper reappeared in 1941 and became openly pro-German.
Brasillach published Pierre Corneille (mentioned here) with editor Fayard in 1938. This letter is therefore necessarily dated from that year or the beginning of the following one.