New-York tribune., 1922-11-19
Paris News Letter
By Lewis Galantiere
r~ws HE literary sensation Of the
q week has been the awara Of the

a~w-a HE literary sensation OF the
n week has been the award OF the
n Rsizac Price, which, as /
noted in a previous letter,
carries with publication an award Of
10000 francs. In addition, the author
receives 10000 francs in advance
royalties. The prize was divided be-
tween Jean Giraudoux's "siegfried
ct 10 Eimousinn and Emile Bau-
reann,s sob 10 predestina." Both
aoveltsta are well known to the public.
Giraudonx, diplomat by profession, is
forty years old and is now publishing
his ninth volume. Baumann is slightly
older and has published an equal num-
Der OF novels
The .nnouncemenS OF the sward was
received with great deal OF protest.
One lively weekly writes as follows:
!. "The Balzac Prize was TO have been
awarded to the unknown author of an
unpublished manuscript. 1t was d.
vided between two we'll known writer's,
whose manuscripts are already In print
and waited only the result of the COM
mittee's deIiberation before being
placed on sale. The public is aston
ishad, but tho initiated know that it
was Bernard Grasset, the publisher,
who induced his friend, Sir Basil Zaha~
rofT, to create the prize; that the sec
retary Of the committee is employed
by Grasset as literary editor; that the
two books chosen will be published by
Grasset. Business is business. /.
"Giraudoux's book will go into Gras-
sets collection called Les Gathers
verts' (where Maria Chapdelgine' ap-
peared and in which George Moore's
Memoirs Of My Dead Life has just
been published). Baumann's novel will
be published in another Grasset COLI
lection called lie Roman And it Is
said that Grasset is reading four more
of the fifteen manuscripts from which
the prize was finally awarded"
To these observations, n. Jean de
Pierrefeu, literary critic Of the "Jour-
nal des Debats," replies. "The prin-
cipal complaint" he says, sis that the
author. The committee is In agree
ment with this complaint. We should
have liked to set new star in the
literary armament. But ne was not TO
be found. For want of an unknown
masterpiece, we did the next best thing;
that is, we chose two authors who are
known in the literary world but not
to the general public. "Job lie pre-
destinen offered qualities of compost
tion, the exact depletion Of true char
acters and broad, human sympathy.
Its drama presents tne clash between
the instinct Of the individual and his
duty; ii is faithful and poignant
picture of reality, lighter by an ideal.
against its sober talent we placed
'Siegfried ct lie Limosin.' Imagine a
tale written in the spirit of the 18th
century, destined to prove a great
truth by Che charming and absurd
means Of irony and contradiction,
tale enlarged TO the proportions of a
romantic novel, novel whose moral
is slender as thread. Imagine on
this light, capricious cloth crowd of
tiny figures, witty designs, sharp OBJ
servations, all forming a train Of
hieroglyphics exquisitely drawn, a
magical, original work. The problem
Of the book is the irreducibie differ
ence between the French and German
mentalities. Nobody but Giraudoux
could have written it, it belongs to no
school, contains no sentence, no phrase
previously employed IN our literature.
Gould We reject it," 4.
So much Tor M. de pierrefeu's re-
ply. In the course of it he mentions
in even warmer terms than I used
"L'Angoisse,' by Rene Arnaud. tI re-