PREVOST, Jean - Lot 171

PREVOST, Jean Jean Prévost L.A.S. "Jean Prévost" to "Madame". Paris, s.d. [October 24]. 1 page in-12 on card headed Europe magazine (F. Rieder & Cie, publishers). Short but interesting literary letter to a correspondent about translations and publications of foreign authors in the journal Europe, of which Jean Prévost was a major contributor: "I'm forwarding your letter to J.R. Bloch. As for the extracts, I have made them: unfortunately, there are only two or three months a year when it is possible to pass works by authors who are still foreign to our public." Prévost is frank about the magazine's editorial constraints and promises to intervene to speed up publication: "Believe me, I will do everything I can to shorten this delay." A fine example of the role played by Europe magazine as a cultural mediator in introducing foreign literature to the French public between the wars. The mention of Jean-Richard Bloch, a major intellectual figure in the magazine, reinforces the documentary interest of this correspondence. Jean Prévost, a critic, novelist and essayist close to the NRF, was also a leading figure in the French Resistance; he was killed by the Germans in the Vercors mountains in August 1944. Good condition. Ink well preserved.