COCTEAU Jean (1889-1963)

Lot 373
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Estimation :
400 - 500 EUR
COCTEAU Jean (1889-1963)
2 autograph letters signed to Emmanuel BERL Autograph letter signed Emmanuel BERL, Palais-Royal, January 20, 1956; 2 pages in-4, in a tight handwriting, envelope. Long letter to the writer Emmanuel Berl "my very dear neighbor" about the Académie française and the candidacy of the historian Jacques Chastenet. Numerous comments are added in the margins. "I don't know yet if I will receive Chastenet under the academic dome, but I will receive him under yours (since you have a ceiling on my head in the Palais Royal) and I will receive him against the grain of my love of deep exactitude. I do not reproach him with anything as far as I am concerned, except for a dedication contradicted by the texts (his Fallières). Once again my long crusade against the intellectualism from which France is dying is taken for grace and somersaults. This leads to a clod of commonplaces on the right and on the left [...] The academy was the only possible place of asylum for me. [...] I reproach your friend for painting only the top. On the other hand, I prefer historians and dukes and ambassadors to the dunces of contemporary literature" ... He notes this quatrain: "Who chaste is born/Sometimes the rest/S'il ne sa veste/Nous retournait. Brief books too chaste. Do not confuse with books too pure" ... He recommends not to show this letter: "The bomb of my diary must burst only after my death. The earth is a bad joke and space-time a lie of which we are the dupes. But if we don't commit suicide, we must try to take this farce seriously. I am looking around for a man who, without being fooled, would render justice under an oak tree. It is probable that the only historians worthy of the name in France are Michelet and Alexandre Dumas" Autograph letter signed to Emmanuel BERL, June 17, 1959; 1 page and a quarter in-4. Autograph letter signed "Ton Jean" to the writer Emmanuel Berl regarding the refusal of a poem on the magazine Réalités. "Dearest Emmanuel Things have happened as expected. Back to sender with a slice of honey - "This magnificent poem would surprise our public" etc. "couldn't you write 4-5 pages..." etc. No. You had to put that poem and its hat on top - like an illumination. I had held out the perch, they took it. I was, alas, certain of it. Sad times" ... He adds on the back: "I am told that Réalités speaks of me as a talented jack-of-all-trades (sic). Before, I was a genius jack-of-all-trades. I've gone down in rank".
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