The red lily

From 1945 to 1949, Blaise Cendrars published four books in Paris, in which he reflects on important stages of his intense life in novel form. The second volume of this loose cycle, released in 1946, is of central importance: the Swiss-born naturalized Frenchman Cendrars recalls World War I, in which he fought as a volunteer in the Foreign Legion against Germany and lost his right arm in 1915. He titled this book "La Main coupée," although this pivotal experience only appears in a brief vision (in the chapter "The Red Lily") that gives the title to this German-language first edition. In this account from the front, Cendrars does not lament his own fate but vividly depicts how a small corps of men from all over the world came together to save the cultural nation of France.