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War The Sharp Tongue Tease More Than Suspect First Transparents Internal Level Crossing Interior

Poems, 1948

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Charles Duits, Max Ernst

Description

Between November 1942 and January 1943, as Breton was beginning to discover New York, hecomposed a series of poems that first appeared in VVV, before being published in a collection by Gallimard in 1948. They all refer to an external reality which, although reworked by poetic discourse, nonetheless imposes its pressure on the poet: from life as part of a couple and difficulties due to wartime, through the power failures that were then frequent in New York; an oppressive and sad world is revealed here as the resumption of the States General a year later is awaited. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Handwritten Poems, 1942-1943.
- War, 1 page in-4°, handwritten first draft of a poem titled and dated 22 November 1942, signed by André Breton in ink with numerous erasures and corrections.
- War, 2 pages in-4°, handwritten poem, titled and signed by André Breton in ink with some erasures and corrections constituting this poem’s second state.
- The Sharp Tongue and Interior, page in-4°, handwritten poems, written and titled by André Breton in ink, constituting the final versions of these two poems.
- The Sharp Tongue, 1 page in-4°, handwritten poem written in ink by André Breton, with erasures and corrections; the first state of the poem [circa 1943].
- Interior, 1 page in-4°, handwritten poem, titled and signed by André Breton on VVV letterhead, corresponding to the final state of the poem.
- More Than Suspect and First Transparents, 1 page large in-4°, handwritten poems written in ink and titled in black pencil corresponding to the final state of these two poems.
- More Than Suspect, 1 page in-4°, this poem’s first quatrain, handwritten and titled in black ink.
- First Transparents, ¼ page in-4°, poem by André Breton handwritten in ink, with erasures and corrections of the first state of the poem
- Tease, 1 page in-4°, poem handwritten, titled, dated November 12, 1942 and signed by André Breton in ink with numerous erasures and corrections.
- Internal Level Crossing, 1 page in-4°, poem handwritten and titled in ink by Breton, dated circa 15 November 1942, with erasures and corrections.
(Most of these documents are on yellowed paper with faded margins)
(Œuvres complètes, Volume III, pages 19 to 23, ‘Poems’, Texts published in 1943 in VVV.)

Other versions of these manuscripts constitute lot 578 of the first Destribats sale, in Paris, at Christie's on 5 July 2019. [André Breton website, 2019.]

*This entry was translated from the French by Michael Richardson.

Bibliography

- Poèmes, in VVV, n° 2-3, mars 1943.

- André Breton, (Édition de Marguerite Bonnet avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier, Marie-Claire Dumas, Étienne-Alain Hubert et José Pierre), Poèmes (1943), Œuvres complètes, tome III, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, pages 19 à 23.

 

Creation datenov.-42./janv.-43
LanguagesFrench
Physical descriptionMs - encre noire
Library

Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 83 à BRT 92

Number of pages11 p.
Reference470000
Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2245
Keywords, ,
CategoriesManuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts
SetPoèmes, 1948, [AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts, [Journal] VVV
Permanent linkhttps://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100659020