MALRAUX André (1901-1976). L. A. S., Boulogne s/Seine 5 November [1954], to General de GAULLE; 4 pages in-8 addressed to him. Magnificent long letter on the Mémoires de guerre [after publication of the first volume, L'Appel, on 22 October 1954]. "Almost all the great actors in history who have written, seem to have wanted to write accounts of operations, even when these operations are called a reign. Whether you have written a mission report, everyone has already seen it. This is not about fulfilling a mission, but about assuming France: about a plan conceived and pursued 'against all odds' for the French community, in the service of what must be called a transcendence; your War Memoirs begin with France, and end with her. This is enough to separate them from those of the heads of state to whom they are compared, and would give them the same family as the founders of orders, if they had been written. [...] You legitimise them before their best part, - at a time when the ebb of nothingness is covering it up. The 'left-wing resistance' says that it admires 'the Appeal' despite the tone with which you speak of Pétain: in truth, it admires him because of what is guaranteed by an accent that does not change when Pétain is in question. I am well aware that you have chosen to write the memoirs of an action and not of a person; but I am looking for actors whose tone matches great actions (I mean those that serve a beginning and a transcendence): there are not many. Look for yourself..."... At the top, de Gaulle wrote: "I saw him"... Another L. A. S., 7 March [1955] (1 p. in-8 on Hôtel Bellevue Palace Bern letterhead): on his return to Paris, he will ask the General for a meeting.