Autograph letter signed.
12mo. 2 pp.
$130.00
To the translator and publisher Georges Roditi, thanking him for the proofs of the latest book by Jean Lartéguy and announcing to send him and Sven Nielsen, the director of Presses de la Cité, the manuscript for a book on Algeria. Juin praises Lartéguy's "Les prétoriens", published by Presses de la Cité in 1961, and announces his manuscript for 12 December: "D'abord un grand merci pour les épreuves du nouveau livre de Lartéguy 'Les Prétoriens' que vous m'avez adressé [...]. Mon enfant sur l'Algérie auquel vous voulez bien vous intéresser ainsi que le Directeur des Presses de la Cité est une bien petite chose auprès de l'œuvre de Lartéguy, pour le romanesque tout au moins. J'achève en ce moment de le mettre en point et serai prêt à vous le présenter vers le 12 décembre [...]".
Juin was strongly opposed to de Gaulle's decision to negotiate Algerian independence with the FLN, yet remained loyal to the president and did not participate in the failed Algiers putsch of 1961. Given his open opposition to the official French position, Juin was nevertheless placed under house arrest and stripped of his special privileges as Marshal of France in the wake of the insurrection and the OAS terrorist campaign. From 1963, Juin's health began to decline, and he died in 1967.
The book in question was without doubt Juin's 1962 publication with Presses de la Cité entitled "C'étaient nos frères", a novel about Franco-Algerian history. In 1963, Juin, together with an otherwise unknown Algerian co-author named Amar Naroun, published an early attempt at writing the history of French Algeria following independence in 1962: "Histoire parallele. La France en Algérie: 1830-1962".
On headed stationery "Le Maréchal Juin".
