Dominique Raoul-Duval, the first editor of Talking with Angels, died on Saturday February 22 at the age of 86, following a long and painful illness. Thus disappears the one who initiated the distribution of this book, considered one of the most important works of spirituality of our time.

Extracts from an interview conducted at her home in 2014 by Fabien Le Boulluec.
The extracts from Dialogues with the angel she reads are the ones she liked best.

At the time, collaborator at Aubier, a house renowned for its seriousness in matters of religion and spirituality, Dominique Raoul-Duval became aware of the manuscript in 1976 thanks to Claude Mettra. This one, producer at France-Culture devoted a program of The Living and the Gods to Gitta Mallasz and the talks she and three of her friends had had with angels. He offered to publish the report. When she read this manuscript, she was enthusiastic, but she feared, however, that the document would be refused because of its extraordinary character. But no: the reader, although being an extremely fastidious Jesuit, recognized that this spiritual experience was authentic. Once the agreement was obtained, she then endeavored, with her team, to highlight the unique character of the “Dialogues”. She eliminated from the cover any author's name (in any case, who should be designated as the author?), as well as that of the publishing house so that only the name of the book, her find, appeared there. Thus The four messengers, the original title of the manuscript, became Dialogues with Englishe.

Thus begins a long collaboration between Gitta and Dominique which will only end with the disappearance of the first... and even beyond since a few months before her death, she was working on a third edition of the Dialogues, after that of 1976 and the integral of 1991, on which they worked together. Dominique Raoul-Duval will also participate in the elaboration of two of the four books of commentaries on Gitta, The dialogues or the leap into the unknown (1989) and In the book "Petits dialogues d'hier et d'aujourd'hui (not translated in English), Gitta (1991).
More than a collaborator, Dominique will have been for Gitta a companion, a friend. Both practiced two cardinal virtues, tenacity and humor. In the field of the French language, of which she knew all the pitfalls and curiosities, and of typography – all the specificities, Dominique was unbeatable. As for their proper use, she was implacable, hence the occasional lively discussions. But Dominique held on, which led Gitta to call her "adorable jerk", usually accompanying this nickname with hilarious caricatures. Both were good company.
This ability to be an excellent editor - forty years in the profession - must have been in her genes... Her mother came from a large Protestant family, the Bosts, and her grandfather Charles was one of the most important historians of Protestantism, as well as a musician, playwright and journalist, and two of her uncles were famous writers. Pierre Bost was a great screenwriter: The devil in the body, The crossing of Paris, and several films by Bertrand Tavernier. Jacques-Laurent Bost was a close friend of the Sartre-Beauvoir couple, one of the feathers of the Modern times and New Observer. On the paternal side, she is the aunt of Marie Nimier.

Dominique Raoul-Duval was also a writer and wrote two autobiographical stories:
- Until more thirsty (1999), published under the pseudonym Anne V., recounts her ordeal and her shame of being an alcoholic, her efforts to get out of it and her failures... Until the day when she pushes the door of Alcoholics Anonymous, meets there similar who do not judge her, but on the contrary welcome her, which will save her. She managed to detoxify herself, and will remain active all her life in the association to which she owes her resurrection.
- Mother Love (2012), is a tender and sensitive chronicle of the great old age of her mother, who, she says with humor, had kept a solid health but was decked out with a “bad memory”. Dominique then endeavored, not to take upon herself and heroically assume the weaknesses and mistakes of the one who was her mother and had become her daughter, but to invent a new relationship whose richness she discovers over a thousand little stories...

In these two books, Dominique Raoul-Duval does not use writing as therapy, a common practice in contemporary literature. His stories are not in the mode of "I", but of "We" and contain all kinds of clues and keys intended to help the reader.

Indefatigable, Dominique also had other commitments. In addition to Alcoholics Anonymous, she led a Christian meditation group at Forum 104; there, seated on a zafu, she shared a simple moment of silence with the others.

Dominique was beautiful, very elegant in clothes in beige shades. Attentive to others, her conversation was always measured. She had a wicked sense of humor. She was a great lady.

She leaves a great void in our association (Adda), of which she was a member since its creation, as well as in the house of Chaville where she lived with "Favory", her painter husband.

Francoise Maupin

>> Our thanks to Bernard and Patricia Montaud for reproducing the drawing of the "adorable bourrique" which appeared in the Cahiers d'Art'as (No. 27, June 1993).