ARAGON Louis (1897 - 1982) L.A.S. "Aragon", Paris November 23 [1971], to Suzanne CORDONNIER-MUZARD; and 2 L.A.S. "Suzanne C" and "S C"(minutes) from Suzanne MUZARD to Aragon, November 1971; 2 pages in-4 each. Clarification about Suzanne Muzard's affair with André Breton, following an article in France-Soir quoting Aragon. [November 20]. Suzanne Muzard protests: "I don't think my ex-husband will accept as accurate that I took furs and jewelry from him, only to, in your words, hasten to sell them in order to bail out the father of Surrealism at a time when you were AB's best friend [...]. [...] Today I seek to understand the reasons for your malicious insinuations, and why it pleases you that in a sentimental period of his life AB should be classed as having lived off a woman"... November 23rd. ARAGON denies having given any interview to France-Soir: "There was no malicious insinuation on my part. In today's press, anyone can be made to say anything. [...] I would also point out that, not only is the vocabulary used not mine - I have never used the word deche to mean the material difficulties of life - but that, whatever André's difficulties in this area may have been at the time (difficulties of which I was never aware or conscious), they were in no way comparable to what was happening in my life. I don't see any reason for this, and I must tell you that, despite the break-up between us later on (and this was the great tragedy of my life), I never ceased to love and admire André, and I never wrote anything against him, even when he associated himself with texts directed against me"... However, on the occasion of several recent biographies, he expressed his indignation "that you have been purely and simply eliminated from his life, that there is no mention anywhere of the only woman I know of whom he truly loved"... He also spoke of what Breton thought and said of her "in that dark period of his life after your last departure, when Éluard and I feared he would kill himself because of your absence - I told anyone who would listen that it was a shame to bar from his existence the woman for whom, with her gone, he had written the most beautiful poem of his life, L'Union libre".... And he recounts the conversation he and Éluard had with Breton in the early days of 1932, after the publication of the poem without an author's name... November 24th. Suzanne Muzard's reply: "You remain the only witness to a once stormy passion - which from the start was doomed by its messiness - not to survive. I don't deny having loved André. And I believe, as you tell me, that I counted in his life... far too much. I never knew he'd thought of killing himself. [...] I don't think it's excessive that A.'s entourage judged me to be harmful. And yet I had extenuating circumstances! I was just a pawn between two men for whom I was the stake... I never thought I'd mention the proof André meant in print or in private - at the end of Nadja"... As for L'Union libre, the poem was written in his presence and only later published: "AB had no doubt given up honouring me with it! But what you don't know is that the title L'Union l.. was a challenge to marriage and EB"... She was touched that Aragon wanted to bring her out of the shadows, at the age of 71! "I've come to realize that love isn't always exclusive, but rather renewable. AB and I resurfaced - elsewhere - separately. For 25 years, I've lived on a feeling whose real importance I've been able to measure.