Paul VALÉRY (1871-1945). L.A.S., Saturday [ca. 1922?], to Jacques Copeau; 2 1/2 pages in-8. Response to a request for a lecture at the Vieux-Colombier... "I precisely needed 3 or four hundred thousand francs for an undertaking that I have taken on, and which is to live. Your words fit the bill perfectly"... But how could he give a lecture when he could only be heard from a distance of fifty centimetres: "You have to be diligent, because I'm rushing and babbling"... He considers the idea of giving his lecture on Edgar Poe again, and sums up: "Absolute desire to please you, and to bring powerful support to Vieux Colombier. - No voice. - Stage fright. It seems to me that the sum of these considerations is zero, but I will nevertheless come to the said Colombier"... He greets him with his friendliest whisper...