[2] Alain-Fournier was born in La Chapelle-d'Angillon, in the Cher département, in central France, the son of school teachers.

[3] He studied at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris, where he prepared for the entrance examination to the École Normale Supérieure.

About their growing friendship, Jacques Rivière wrote: ”Underneath his untamed exterior, I found him to be tender, naive, filled with a sweet, dreamy sap, even infinitely more vulnerable than me, which is saying something, in the face of life".

[4] In early 1905, he started to write poems such as ”L’ondée" (The shower) and "Conte du soleil et de la route" (Tale of the sun and the road).

Yvonne (who was actually engaged) ended up mysteriously saying: "We are children, we acted foolishly" and asked Henri to not follow her again as she was leaving, though, a few steps further, she turned around to look at him for a long time before disappearing in the crowd.

He attended a garden-party in Chiswick that later served as an inspiration for Frantz De Galais' wedding party in "Le Grand Meaulnes".

He had suffered several brain fevers in the previous months due to exhaustion, and he was cognitively impaired and fell asleep during the test.

[13] During that same summer, he finally learned that Yvonne was married and he was heartbroken over it, expressing in letters his feeling of new-found utter aloneness.

He vividly expressed in many letters to his friends and family how much he was struggling with depression, hopelessness and anxiety during his mandatory time in the army, and how broken and traumatized he felt even as he returned.

The three of them were enjoying Paris' effervescent artistic life together, though Isabelle and Jacques worried about Henri's state of mind, which especially showed in the way he seemed unable to start doing anything.

[18] He shared in several letters experiences that clearly show his emotional distress at the time, such as getting lost while on his way home and feeling like a stranger in a strange land,[19] or spending all day wandering in the rain and having nightmares at night where he couldn't recognize his house and no one could hear him call out for help.

[20] In 1910, he started a two-year on-and-off relationship with Jeanne Bruneau, a country-born milliner who inspired him the character of Valentine in "Le Grand Meaulnes".

Le Grand Meaulnes was finished in early 1913, and was published first in the Nouvelle Revue Française (from July to October 1913) and then as a book, which was nominated for, but did not win, the Prix Goncourt.

The same year, Henri finally found Yvonne's trail again, as Jacques Rivière's younger brother Marc was studying medicine in Rochefort, the town where her family lived.

Henri also showed her a letter he wrote for her the previous year, expressing his love and faithfulness and telling her that his then upcoming novel, "Le Grand Meaulnes" was all about her.

[25] In 1914, Alain-Fournier started to work on a second novel, Colombe Blanchet, but this remained unfinished when he had to join the Army as a lieutenant that August.

[26] According to Gerd Krumeich [de], professor at the University of Düsseldorf, it is correct that Alain-Fournier's patrol attacked a German ambulance, but it is difficult to establish the precise facts.

[27] Most of the writing of Alain-Fournier was published posthumously: Miracles (a volume of poems and essays) in 1924, his correspondence with Jacques Rivière in 1926 and his letters to his family in 1930.

Mais j'espère bien avant la fin de l'année avoir terminé Colombe Blanchet.