The Cut Off Hand

Autographed letter signed "Blaise" to Louis Brun of the Grasset publishing house [Biarritz], January 7, 1933, 2 pages, in-4to with autographed envelope postmarked. Slight loss at the upper right corner without affecting the text. Cendrars vehemently refuses any official distinction to be associated with his literary work - Then, mentioning the loss of his right arm, he states that he is not opposed to the idea of receiving the military Legion of Honor for his actions during the Great War. In your letter of December 21, you said to me: 'Don't worry about anything now - leave me alone!' According to the attached papers, I see that you have done far, far too much.

So, I am sending them back to you, repeating: 1° I do not want the cross for my literature. I do not write for a reward.

All this bothers and irritates me. I have asked for nothing.

Now, if you are absolutely determined to force my hand and make me receive the cross while silencing me and without me being able to refuse it because having already put my hand in this mechanism that is the hierarchical voice, I have lost an arm without saying anything - you can have me awarded the military Legion of Honor for which 1° I was already proposed in 1916 (I have Tremblay's papers), 2° to which I apparently have the right (but I never took care of it) as a volunteer (engaged volunteer); 3° or as a mutilated person at 80%. But, once again, writing has nothing to do with all that.

I hug you with all my heart, call me a big fool, etc. But do not get angry.

I am sending you all these papers so that you can respond without making a fuss; as for me, I will remain silent. On September 29, 1915, Cendrars was seriously wounded in his right arm by a machine gun burst; he was amputated above the elbow (Cendrars is right-handed). He was then mentioned in the army orders, awarded the military medal and the war cross. Although mentioned in this letter, it is almost thirty years later that the writer, two years before his death, was made Commander of the Legion of Honor by André Malraux. Cendrars joined Grasset during the prosperous period of the publishing house in the 1920s.

It was then that he forged an unbreakable friendship with Louis Brun (Bernard Grasset's right-hand man), before the latter was murdered by his own wife due to marital infidelity in 1939.