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Maréchal Philippe Pétain’s personal papers are kept by both the National Archives (Paris) and by the Service Historique de la Défense (Vincennes) . This service has recently organized about four thousand letters written to Pétain during the first World War. This correspondence allows for a comprehensive study of how Pétain became increasingly popular and how his image was created in France. The first letters are from his own entourage but the circle of correspondents progressively widened until the spring of 1916. From that point "the heroic defender of Verdun" became an object of veneration for French people, many of whom wrote to him directly: female admirers, children, soldiers and officers, foreigners, and politicians, all of whom confided their hopes, fears, petitions or observations to him. The content of these letters offers a unique way of understanding the French experience of the Great War and the attachment they developed to one of their most brilliant military leaders.