François MITTERRAND - Signed autograph letter. 1939.

François Mitterrand (1916.1996)

Autograph letter signed to Marie-Louise Terrasse, known as Catherine Langeais.

Four pages small in 4°.

[Fort d’Ivry]. Friday February 17, 1939.

« We designed the future to our will. »

“My beloved little Zou, I am worried about your health: you looked so tired last night. If my love could be enough to restore your balance, with what joy I would take on all the illnesses of the world. I admit that last night I slept little: and I would have liked to watch over you every minute, and protect, this time really, your sleep. My darling peach, do you remember those long (and they seemed so short) evenings in October when we were preparing to undergo a separation of at least a month, and where we were preparing to begin this difficult period in which we are ? What wonderful hours we had. And we designed the future to our will. We knew that life would bring us its difficulties, its troubles; and we were ready to endure them, so strong and sure did our love seem to us. I told you that the waiting period was ending; that began our life together, marked henceforth by the sorrows and joys which would come to strike us together.

Today, all of this comes back to me with particular intensity. The prospect of these few days when you will truly be far from me, the fear of seeing you fall ill, all of this grips my heart. But I think you're in trouble. I also think that I love you and that you love me. So I talk about this already distant time from our forecasts and I feel a feeling of certainty: we will live our pain together.

What separates us? Who could be inside us? Far from me or near me, you are in me. You remain my fiancée. Life can't be all desolate. Tomorrow, my little girl, I look forward to seeing you. As agreed in my last letter, I will be waiting for you at DF (entrance to Bd Raspail) from 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., 4 p.m. being the principle appointment. Then, if any impediment arises on one side or the other I will wait for you again from 6 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., also at the top of Bd Raspail. It would be so good to spend a long time together before our separation, this separation that I envisage with so much sadness. And on Sunday, would it be impossible to go to mass together?

You will tell me all that, my Marie-Louise, I can't wait to have your letter tomorrow morning, and then to see you again. I adore you, my darling Zou. Francis.

Forgive this brief word, but the rally is about to ring. Soon I will bring you one or two “compositions”. I will be happy with your judgment, which I hope will be both partial and impartial. See you tomorrow, my dearest. Fr.

PS Get well quickly, my Zou, how I think of you and how I love you! Too much ? Tell me: no. Fr. "

Catherine Langeais (1923.1998), whose real name is Marie-Louise Terrasse, met François Mitterrand on January 28, 1938, during the École Normale Supérieure ball, with whom, although only 15 years old, she became engaged. Mitterrand wrote more than 300 letters to the woman he nicknamed Zou.