Joseph DELTEIL (1894-1977). Autograph manuscript, Le Vert-Galant, [1931]; 10pages in-8 or in-4, in a folder bearing Delteil's signature and autograph title. First chapter of this fictionalized biography of Henri IV, which was published by Les Portiques in 1931; Delteil did not include it in his "Œuvres complètes". The manuscript, which shows erasures and corrections, is made up of small pieces of paper glued together. In this first chapter, Delteil tells the story of the Béarnais' birth and childhood, and justifies his biographical "method": "It's our pleasure to scratch away at history, this old funerary slab all covered in plaster, moss and cow dung, our pleasure to search among the gravel where we played jacks and caught the enchanting grey lizard, to search childishly for a simple tibia, a heartbeat. Le "Béarnais", "Nouste Enric": parbleu! I've never complained about an image, even an epinal one. And I don't feel the slightest bit iconoclastic". Delteil wants to find the secret of Henri IV's "goat-like soul, free and crucified", he wants to "invent" "psychological history". The manuscript closes with an evocation of hunting and a tasty gathering of porcini mushrooms... Attached is a L.A.S. from Delteil, La Tuilerie de Massane (1971), to a young poet, Yvon Conéjéro.