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    On Paul Éluard

    Manuscript

    Author

    Author André Breton
    Person cited Paul Éluard

    Description

    Fragment of a manuscript text by André Breton relating to Paul Éluard. During the sale its description went with lot 2352, but the facsimile went with lot 2347 that brought together Breton’s interviews with André Parinaud.

    A few fragments of the radio Interviews from 1952, elements of which are dispersed throughout Breton’s papers. The meeting with Trotsky (Interview XIV), and the threat of the appropriation of surrealism and its cultural grounds by Christian thought (Interview XV) are present here in manuscript form, in a slightly different version to that published by Gallimard and reprinted in the third volume of the Complete Works. [Lot 2347, Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

    At the end of 1952, Paul Éluard, who for twenty years had been his closest friend, had just died. André Breton arranged for the reproduction in the magazine Arts of the facsimile of a dedication from his former friend, before setting out an annotated list of Éluard’s works contained in his library, apparently with the intention of selling them. Inventories are one of the rituals of mourning.

    Handwritten manuscript by André Breton, Paris, 18 December 1952, of a list titled ‘Éluard’ in which he documents the copies offered to him by Paul Éluard, copying out the dedications. The list was sent to the bookseller Jacques Goldschmitt before being returned by him. [Lot 2352, Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

     

    Handwritten manuscript, undated [1952].
    - 1 in-4° page, draft manuscript by André Breton relating to Paul Éluard:
    'Moreover it was not at an intellectual level that Éluard mattered, but at the emotional level.' [Auction catalogue, 2003]

     

    Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski

    Creation date1952
    LanguagesFrench
    Physical descriptionMs - encre bleue, rature et correction
    Reference1779000
    Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2352
    Keywords,
    CategoriesManuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts
    Set[Manuscrits d'AB] Entretiens 1913-1952, [AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts
    Permanent linkhttps://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100789600