Layout for _Le La_
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Manuscripts of dream phrases, dated December 2, 1960, decorated with a drawing, drafted and signed.
12 images, a descriptive note, associated manuscripts, a bibliography.
The Collection
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Signed manuscript by André Breton dated 2 December 1960.
‘There will always be a wind shovel in the sand of dreams.’ Gathering together several memorable phrases from among those that he was already saying in 1924 were ‘knocking at the window’, in 1960 Breton offered a kind of anthology of those strange maxims that can appear during a dream or on waking. The collection, titled Le La, would be published in November 1961 by éditions P.-A. B., in Alès, with a lithograph by Jean Benoît.
The manuscript fragments brought together here are interesting in giving an indication of the physical way in which Breton conceived this bibliophiles’ opus. Thus we have the various states of a collection designed in the manner of a rare object, whose aim would be to showcase or to emphasise the unique power of each of these phrases. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]
Signed handwritten manuscript by André Breton dated 2 December 1960.
- 1 small in-4° manuscript page of the first draft of Le La in ink on the reverse of headed notepaper for the D'Arcy Galleries, titled, signed and dated by Breton with a few deletions and corrections:
‘I have recounted how many hazards in waking life listening to the “dictation of thought” (or of something else?) to which surrealism originally wished to submit itself and give itself over through so-called ‘automatic’ writing was exposed to. In consequence, for me these phrases, snatches of monologue or dialogue had an immense value, left over from sleep and recalled without any possible error, so clear were their articulation and intonation on waking, a waking that they seemed to induce, for you would say that they had only just been uttered.’
[Auction catalogue, 2003]
Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski
Bibliography
André Breton, Le La, P.-A. B., Alès, 1961.
André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), Le La, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 341.
| Creation date | 02/12/1960 |
| Bibliographical material | 1 small in-4° manuscript page in black and blue ink. André Breton, Le La, Œuvres complètes, volume IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes (edition established by Marguerite Bonnet and edited by Étienne-Alain Hubert with contributions from Philippe Bernier and Marie-Claire Dumas), Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 341. |
| Languages | French |
| Number of pages | 1 p. |
| Reference | 644000 |
| Breton Auction, 2003 | Lot 2488 |
| Keywords | Work notes, Dream |
| Categories | Andre Breton's Manuscripts |
| Set | [AB's Manuscripts] Manuscripts 1958-1966 |
| Permanent link | https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100046570 |
See also
1 Work