Translations:CP 02915/47/en

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↑ Robert Proust had left for the front on the very first day of mobilization (see the letter to Hauser written [during the night of 2 to 3 August 1914], CP 02812 and its note 9). Marcel Proust never missed the opportunity to inform his correspondents about his brother being mentioned in dispatches in the first month of the war and the dangers to which he was exposed (see for example note 10 of the letter to Lucien Daudet, CP 02844, or note 5 of the letter to Louis de Robert, CP 02890). In an unpublished letter Proust asks a social correspondent of a newspaper to write up this military distinction of his brother: "[...] I see that you sometimes print citations mentioned in the army's daily dispatches. Well my brother, doctor Proust, was mentioned in dispatches, and apart from Le Matin and l'Écho de Paris none of the other papers, apart from the military magazines, has mentioned it. From the very first days of the war, he has done things that have earned him the admiration of all, so I would be very pleased, if it is convenient to you, if you could say that he had been mentioned in dispatches. The citation reads: "Proust, medical officer 2nd class (he was promoted to captain for his excellent conduct), has shown proof of remarkable energy and self-sacrifice in his organization and running of the medical services by operating on the wounded even whilst under enemy fire." (You have, perhaps, read the account of operations being carried out at Étain, shrapnel falling on the operating table to the extent that in the end he had to take the wounded down into the cellars.) He is not only a medical officer during the war, but in civilian life he is an associate professor at the Faculté." (Proust. Du temps perdu au temps retrouvé, catalogue de l'exposition du Musée des lettres et manuscrits, 2010, letter no. 17, p. 40; and le Bulletin d'informations proustiennes, no. 41, 2011, p. 158.) Robert Proust's heroism at the front is detailed in his military record, p. 2. [FL, PW]

[n8-1] Robert Proust had left for the front on the very first day of mobilization (see the letter to Hauser written [during the night of 2 to 3 August 1914], CP 02812 and its note 9). Marcel Proust never missed the opportunity to inform his correspondents about his brother being mentioned in dispatches in the first month of the war and the dangers to which he was exposed (see for example note 10 of the letter to Lucien Daudet, CP 02844, or note 5 of the letter to Louis de Robert, CP 02890). In an unpublished letter Proust asks a social correspondent of a newspaper to write up this military distinction of his brother: "[...] I see that you sometimes print citations mentioned in the army's daily dispatches. Well my brother, doctor Proust, was mentioned in dispatches, and apart from Le Matin and l'Écho de Paris none of the other papers, apart from the military magazines, has mentioned it. From the very first days of the war, he has done things that have earned him the admiration of all, so I would be very pleased, if it is convenient to you, if you could say that he had been mentioned in dispatches. The citation reads: "Proust, medical officer 2nd class (he was promoted to captain for his excellent conduct), has shown proof of remarkable energy and self-sacrifice in his organization and running of the medical services by operating on the wounded even whilst under enemy fire." (You have, perhaps, read the account of operations being carried out at Étain, shrapnel falling on the operating table to the extent that in the end he had to take the wounded down into the cellars.) He is not only a medical officer during the war, but in civilian life he is an associate professor at the Faculté." (Proust. Du temps perdu au temps retrouvé, catalogue de l'exposition du Musée des lettres et manuscrits, 2010, letter no. 17, p. 40; and le Bulletin d'informations proustiennes, no. 41, 2011, p. 158.) Robert Proust's heroism at the front is detailed in his military record, p. 2. [FL, PW]

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Translations:CP 02915/47/en

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