Note à propos du manuscrit de Batouala, véritable roman nègre, de René Maran, découvert au musée-bibliothèque The Rosenbach de Philadelphie

Only a few months after the Centenary of “Batouala - Prix Goncourt 1921”, a letter exchange between René Maran and Alain Locke, dated 1929 and held in the archives of Howard University, Washington, allowed to discover the existence of a second manuscrit of Maran’s first published novel, as well as a second typescript of its famous preface, at The Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia. Presented here are a few elements of the history of those documents and of their foreseeable impact on the genetic commentaries that are currently being phrased for a new edition of the novel.