Benjamin FONDANE (1898-1944). L.A.S., Paris, 12 January 1940, to Paul DERMEE 4 pages in-8. He received Dermée's book Jours de fête and his wife Céline ARNAULD's La Nuit pleure tout haut, which he read "with great pleasure; you have two different lyrical styles which complement each other in the reader's mind, like a cartoon and a piece of orchestral music at a cinema". He was particularly touched by the Preface, in which Dermée observes that poetry is hardly ever read any more: "our books do not pass, or pass very little, into the hands of young people, due to the lack of topicality of poetry in a plutocratic state". But he hopes that one day his talent will be recognised, "since you have kept the momentum, kept that availability to poetry that I envy you". He recognises the strength of the poetic vocation, which leads one to accept "seeing one's whole life turned upside down and agreeing to run from one failure to another, flame in one's eyes and shoulders high". This was certainly the case with Dermée and his wife, whom he encouraged to resist, to "hold on again and again - as if in Little Finland". He is going through "a crisis of poetry - of a 'what's the point?' that is as stupid as it is sterilising [...] Perhaps it is also a crisis of friendship. And solitude. And of work. He is looking for an outlet, and wonders if Dermée could advise him on doing something on the radio... Attached is a L.S. with 5 autograph lines to the same author (half-page in-4, letterhead of Studios Paramount in Saint-Maurice, fold split), giving his new address and thanking him for sending his poems Prophéties.