"W hen the publication of my book in 1926, the editor pointed out to me that to resist my own recipes and remain stubbornly alive . . . could seriously jeopardize the publication of my book. So, I had to prepare my own suicide carefully . . . I tied a rope to a tree, leaning over a cliff above the Dordogne. I loaded a revolver. I procured a potent poison. Then, in the presence of the press, I passed the rope around my neck, swallowed the poison, and jumped into the void firing a revolver in the right temple. I thought to put all chances of my side. I had not expected that the shock would divert the blow, the bullet cut the rope that I would fall in the Dordogne, a trout fisherman take me back to shore; this half-drowning finally make me vomit the poison. You could not do better in terms of failed suicide. Fortunately, it was a highly dramatic failure, as my editor, the press and public opinion kept me from trying again. "