The sub-series consists of records relating to John Ralston Saul's novel, De si bons Américains, published first in French in 1994; a version of which appeared in English in 2012 as Dark Diversions. The sub-series holds notebooks, manuscript drafts, corrected and revised typescript drafts, correspondence, promotional material, and press clippings of reviews. The drafts reflect the novel's evolution first as a collection of inter-related stories through various writing phases into a novel; its translation into French and the incorporation of new material; and Saul's return to the work, post-publication, in 1998, with revisions and some new chapters. Drafts and working papers of individual short stories compiled under the working title "The Filth of July" reflect its original development in the early 1980s. New chapters, "The Narrator Pauses to Reflect", and a new working title, "A Good American", were introduced about 1985. Saul added a new chapter, "Collecting Dictators I", in the early 1990s to the manuscript, under a new working title, "Some Good Americans". Further revisions resulted in the removal of some of the earlier chapters, a reordering of the chapters, and the addition of "Conversations with Dictators" and later "Chatting with a dictator's assassin". The French draft includes corrections and annotations by Saul; there is also a French galley proof with corrections by Henri Robillot. Saul revised the English draft of "Some Good Americans" in 1998, adding some new content and revising the chapter sequence. Some of these new chapters were published in the Italian magazine Linea D'Ombra in 1998 as stories, and later appeared in Dark Diversions.
Correspondence and related material in the sub-series shows the process of writing and developing De si bons Américains, including query letters to literary agents; faxes to and from Françoise Pasquier, editor with Éditions Rivages; and correspondence with Michael Levine, lawyer, concerning English rights. Publicity and promotional material includes a PR bulletin from Éditions Rivages, an itinerary for appearances in Montreal, bestseller lists, and a dustjacket copy. There are also reviews of the book and articles about the author in publications from France and Quebec, such as Le Canard Enchaîne, Le Monde, Max, Le Nouvelle Observateur, Le Figaro Littéraire, Les Echos, Madame Figaro, Nova magazine, Les Nouvelles de la Francophonie, L'Événement du jeudi, La Presse, Le Journal de Montréal, Le Droit, Le Soleil, and Voir.
