Director Truffaut's place in contemporary world cinema has been secured by such stunning films as The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim , and Day for Night . Truffaut, who never finished secondary school, was also a voluminous correspondent, and this chronological selection reveals his basic humanity, as he encourages others in the film industry, speaks lovingly of his children, and always, always talks of movies--his and others. The five hundred letters collected here span the whole of Tuffaut's extraordinary career, from the ardent and troubled adolescent to the years of grandest accomplishment in the French cinema. Noteworthy correspondents incude Jean-Luc Goddard, Alfred Hitchcock, Louis Malle, Helen Scott, Eric Rohmer, and lifelong friend Robert Lachenay.