Paul CLAUDEL. L.A.S., [Paris] February 3, 1938, to Henri de Nolhac; 4 pages in-8 at his address 11 bis, rue Jean Goujon, envelope. On his defeat at the Académie Française by Claude Farrère (who, on March 28, 1935, won by 15 votes to Claudel's 10). Sorry to have upset his correspondent (son of academician Pierre de Nolhac), Claudel explains: "The account of my visit to your father was only intended to characterize the otherworldly atmosphere that enveloped my academic journey. [...] It is generally accepted that the Académie has the right to indulge every whim and every injustice. I do not accept this. The Académie is the oldest of our institutions. [...] Its members are not its owners; they are merely its usufructuaries and administrators, subject to the rules of common honesty. On March 28, 1935, the following case arose. Two men had applied. One was a man whose entire life's work is devoted to the exaltation of virtue, purity, country and religion. The other was a despicable thug, an opium addict, a pornographer, a soap opera industrialist [...]. Your father chose between these two men. This honest man, this spiritualist, this Christian, for reasons of prosody, voted for the author of Civilisés and Petites Alliées. In doing so, he has dishonored himself and the institution with which he is associated. You'll think I'm being brutal. Too bad. The whole of France, the whole of the literary world, has judged as I have. You witnessed this outcry of indignation, which has not subsided. [...] Even so, your father was ashamed. A few days after the election, he wrote to thank me for a book [...] "What a pity I didn't receive your book sooner! It would have changed my opinion of you and maybe my vote! I won't add any comment other than this exclamation mark. You'd need a whole row of them!"....