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Note for René Bertelé

(for the intention [sic] of Gaston Gallimard)

Correspondence

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Jean-Joël Barbier, Barraud, Gérard Legrand, André Parinaud, Pierre Probb, Octavio Paz
Letter to René Bertelé, Gaston Gallimard

Description

Draft of a letter from André Breton to René Berthelé in 1951.

In this draft of a letter to René Berthelé in 1951, Breton takes stock of his publishing projects. Addressed first is the Révélation collection, which stalled after the publication of Maurice Fourré's volume due to a difference of opinion between the Gallimard publishing house, which was clearly seeking to create a pool of young authors, and Breton, who saw in the idea of ‘revelation’ something more timeless and elevated. His proposal to publish Liberté sur parole [Freedom to Speak], the first collection by a promising young poet, Octavio Paz, is worth noting. As for Breton's own projects, the publisher was able to follow them more easily: here we see some of his major collections of essays from the 1950s, as well as the new edition of Surréalisme et la peinture [Surrealism and Painting], which was to be the great work published towards the end of his life. A letter to Gaston Gallimard at the close of December 1951 attests to Bretons's difficulty in making himself heard (file no. 527).

Signed autograph manuscript, 1951.
- 2 pages in-4°, handwritten by Breton in blue ink, monogrammed and addressed to René Bertelé, the publisher of Le Point du jour [Break of Day], concerning the Révélation collection that Breton was to direct and which had only one publication, Maurice Fourré's La Nuit du Rose-Hôtel [The Night of the Rose Hotel], as well as proposals for radio interviews and publications:
“Nothing would have been easier, from the outset, than to include works by young authors. It was only commercial considerations that dissuaded me from offering them. I did not mean the word ‘Revelation’ in the sense of unveiling a new literary figure, but rather in the sense of deciphering an enigma of interest to human understanding... I am offering to draw up and present the first authentic anthology of Romanticism, which has yet to be done, by ceasing to separate its literary and social aspects.”

Some erasures and corrections (with tears on both pages). [Auction Catalogue, 2003]