Jacques Rivière & Jean Paulhan, 1918-1924

When Jacques Rivière (1886-1925) and Jean Paulhan (1884-1968) began their correspondence in December 1918, it was immediately about La Nouvelle Revue française; launched in 1909 by Gide, Copeau, Ghéon, Schlumberger, Ruyters and Arnauld, the review will resume, after an interruption during the Great War. Rivière is coming out of three hard years of captivity which weakened him and is preparing the rebirth of the magazine, which he wants to be morally and intellectually free from its founders; Paulhan was wounded at the Front, almost died, went through a serious personal crisis and collaborated on several magazines, while working without enthusiasm at the Ministry of Public Instruction.

Little by little, Paulhan learned to support Rivière who, as early as May 1920, wrote his gratitude to him: “You are for me this Messiah that in my moments of greatest fatigue I hoped for without hope. » And Gaston Gallimard hires Jean Paulhan as secretary of the NRF: through the work for the review – from reading texts to correcting proofs, from choosing collaborators to compiling summaries – Rivière sets the course and Paulhan, in the background, works to maintain it… A devoted friendship is formed between them: it is the time of “hopes” and “projects”.

While The NRF was relaunched, Jacques Rivière felt the need to get together and write, especially since he had a novel to complete, Aimée (1922). For his part, Jean Paulhan is going through a difficult period due to his divorce... In trust, they support each other, but their companionship is abruptly interrupted when, in February 1925, Jacques Rivière dies of typhoid fever.

A “Jacques Rivière quarrel” soon begins, which sees two opposing clans clash for many years: the members of the NRF on the one hand, defending the memory of their friend whom they knew freed from the religious imprint, and on the other hand, Isabelle Rivière, the widow of the writer supported by her men-in-charge, who intends to place her husband's publications under the sign of a faith never denied...

“A detestable quarrel,” Jean Paulhan commented. Detestable certainly, but very revealing of one of the important issues in French literature in the aftermath of the Great War.

See Lettres and selected extracts

Read the interview with Bernard Baillaud

Publisher : Claire Paulhan

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