166 - ALAIN (Émile Chartier, known as), 1868–1951.

ALAIN (Émile Chartier, known as), 1868–1951. Autograph manuscript, “Please publish” [for *Propos sur le bonheur*]. No place, no date; 2 pp., in-4 format; numerous strikings-through and corrections. An interesting introductory text for *Propos sur le bonheur*, extensively revised and corrected. In it, Alain explains in the third person the aim of his famous collection: to learn how to be happy despite “real evils” and great trials, by fighting discouragement, “fatalism, bitterness, and endless rumination.” With his characteristic irony, he even imagines rewarding those who have “chosen to be happy” with a “civic crown,” believing that “all these corpses and all these ruins and this reckless spending […] are the work of men who have never known how to be happy and who cannot tolerate those who try to be so.” Finally, he emphasizes the accessible style of these texts, many of which are adapted from newspaper articles: “After all, Alain—even when he recreates for us the thought of a Plato or a Descartes—hardly writes for philosophers,” but rather brings together these articles “for general use.”