Jacques CHARDONNE (1884-1968). L.A.S. "J.C", November 24, 1962, [to Jacques Brenner]; 2 pages in-4. On the decline of publishing and literature. Chardonne clarifies his thoughts on capitalism, which is based not on money but on people. "When the barometer is at zero, there's no point in heating things up artificially; the business is finished; it just has to disappear. This is very clear in publishing. Le Mercure is a good example. (Charpentier, likewise; all "literature" publishers, for that matter). It's about a certain era (certain authors, and audience). And the publisher. Are there reserves of publishers, when they are lacking in a house? (Charpentier was a "publisher"; A. Fasquelle was nothing); similarly Arthème Fayard was a publisher; his successors, nothing. You can pour capital (as we do today) into a house with no publisher and no authors; that's peeing in the sand"... He speaks of a Prix de Consolation that displeases him with its political background ("the exploitation of misfortune"), and of Dumayet's reprehensible morals, before sharing Boisdeffre's criticism of Cinq ans avant, in which we sense Roger Nimier's emptiness: "He only wrote one very good book, one of the very first: Un grand d'Espagne. It's all the more tragic. Perhaps the best book of this hollow age (except for journalists) is Histoire d'O (don't mention it to the Académie)"... Attached is another L.A.S., La Frette October 25, 1931, to Frédéric Lefèvre (1p. in-4, envelope), about Lefèvre's book Le Sol, which he mentioned to the Goncourts; he sent him "a copy of Claire (Mon plaisir)"...