In December 1976, just forty years ago, Talking with Angels appeared in bookstores. From the outset, its design made it an extraordinary book: no author's name on the cover, nor that of the publisher. Simply the title "Dialogues with the Angel" in black on a white background. Austere and intriguing.

Gitta Mallasz, scribe and translator of the Angels

This publication was the culmination of long years of waiting and work. After having suffered fifteen years of communist rule in Hungary, Gitta Mallasz, the " scribe of angels », had arrived in France in 1960 and had quickly started French translation of the eighty-eight conversations she and her friends had had – in Hungarian – with their inner masters, in Budapest, from June 1943 to December 1944. Once the text was ready, Gitta and her entourage set out to find a publisher. For my part, I entrusted the manuscript to two friends, both readers in renowned publishing houses, but only encountered perplexity and incomprehension.
Nadia Schild, a very dear friend of Gitta had for her part sent the document to Claude Mettra, writer and producer at France-Culture, who immediately understood that this was an important text and decided to dedicate a emission broadcast on March 22, 1976. Gitta told in a calm voice the incredible story of the "Dialogues" to an attentive and warm Claude Mettra. The reception was very favourable. It was decided to rely on this program to find a publisher. Claude Mettra recommended Aubier editions.

And so it was that one spring afternoon I received Dominique Raoul-Duval, editor in this house, who was asked to listen to a tape and left a mimeographed notebook under her arm. It remained to convince the reading committee, in particular the specialist in spiritual questions, a rigorous Jesuit. He felt that this was a genuine spiritual experience, which should be published.

Nine months gestation

The case will be handled smoothly. Nine months separate Claude Mettra's broadcast from the publication of the book, in December of the same year… But, while it was in press, Gitta fell seriously ill. His lungs were filling with water. The doctors didn't understand a thing. She was hospitalized in Toulouse.
She was still there when I arrived on December 23 in Sauveterre-la-Lémance, in the south of Périgord, to celebrate Christmas with her and her husband Laci. He was waiting for me at the station, worried. The books had just arrived. But no Gitta… She didn't come back until the next afternoon. When the ambulance door opened, still on her stretcher, she shouted happily, "Champagne." As she entered the living room she saw the books neatly arranged on the wedding chest, surrounding the seven-branch candlestick. It was the most emotional Christmas of my life.

PS: a prime time program was needed to publicize the book more widely: it was a “Radioscopie” by Jacques Chancel on March 10, 1977. The tone, polemical, was very different from that of Claude Mettra. Again, it was a great success. The book was launched.

Francoise Maupin