There might be a reference that would give you the exact date in Calvet's (translated) biography of Barthes. But I heard a talk once by Norman Bryson in which, as I remember, he had actually tracked down the cover and it turned out it was not really a soldier but *a young boy* in uniform (this may be why researchers don't find the cover that fits Barthes's description). As I remember, Bryson felt that Barthes's essential argument remained, but there had been some interesting selective memory going on in Barthes's citation of the cover. ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama.