Around the Letter to the Directors of the Resistance by Jean Paulhan

When it appeared in 1952, Jean Paulhan's Letter to the Directors of the Resistance revived the debates on collaboration that had agitated French society after the Liberation. It was also a statement on the influence of communism, mainly in literary and intellectual circles. John Flower offers a new study of the pamphlet which places it in a particular context, that of the purge which followed the Liberation.

Through this study, the author presents the evolution of Paulhan and highlights his contributions to the debates on intellectuals and writers who were compromised by acts of collaboration with the Nazi authorities. It also examines the role that Paulhan played alongside Mauriac and Camus by showing how all three took critical positions vis-à-vis the National Writers' Committee. He had access to unpublished documents from the archives of Paulhan and Mauriac which are reproduced in facsimile.

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