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Dr. Helena Lewis
Harvard University
Center for European Studies
5 Bryant Street
Cambridge, Mass. 02138

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Dear Dr. Lewis:

	I noticed your request for information about Elsa Triolet
in the {\it New York Review of Books}.  I don't have any, but it
reminded me of having read your introduction to her {\it A Fine
of Two Hundred Francs}.  I bought the book, because I was curious
about her and read one of the stories and then turned to the
introduction.  The introduction brought to mind a fact that
prevented me from taking the stories seriously and reading further.

	Your capsule biography slurs over the period from August
1939 to June 22, 1941.  Your only mention of it seems to me to
lack honesty saying, ``Even before the fall of France many communist
leaders were imprisoned or forced into exile''.  A reader not familiar
with that period or with a poor memory won't recall that the
reason that some communist leaders may have been imprisoned is that
from the signing of the Non-aggression pact
until Hitler attacked the Soviet Union the communists regarded the
defense of France as an imperialist war and opposed war measures
including defense.  Perhaps that's why Aragon was in the punishment
battalion.

	I hope that your full biography will treat this period as
fully as your sources permit and that you will make an extra effort
to get information about Triolet's activities and attitudes at that
time.  I suppose that communists and ex-communists will be inclined
to forget it as much as possible.  However, I'm sure it must have
been a big strain on many of them including Triolet.  No doubt the
transition to being anti-German must have been a big relief.

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Sincerely,


John McCarthy    
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