The paradoxes of a friendship Francis Ponge and Henri Calet

This article aims to read the relationship between Ponge and Henri Calet through the lens of their correspondence and sheds light in particular on the texts written in Algeria while the two writers were staying at Sidi Madani. It shows the paradoxes and difficulties of many friendships between writers when misunderstandings arise. While it may show how different Ponge’s and Calet’s personalities were, it nevertheless underlines what united them: a shared ethics of friendship.