COCTEAU Jean - Lot 91

Lot n° 91
Go to lot
Estimation :
15000 - 20000 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 15 000EUR
COCTEAU Jean - Lot 91
COCTEAU Jean Autograph MANUSCRIT signed "Jean Cocteau", La Difficulté d'être, 1946; 198 pages in-4 (27 x 21 cm) on 193 sheets mounted on tabs on vellum paper sheets, interleaved with snakes, all bound in 2 large volumes in-fol. with soft black morocco binding, raspberry calf linings and guards, smooth backs, folder and case (Patrick Loutrel). An important manuscript of The Difficulty of Being, in which Cocteau becomes a moralist, evokes memories, restores his truths and reviews his life and work. Very ill, Cocteau left in February 1946 to rest in Morzine in Haute-Savoie; it was there that he began La Difficulté d'être, which he would continue to return to Paris at the Palais-Royal and then to Verrièresle- Buisson among the Vilmorins. Completed on July 5, the book will be published by Paul Morihien in 1947. This introspective essay is at the same time a work of moralism, a book of memories (evoking among others Apollinaire, Radiguet, Les Ballets Russes de Diaghilev, Proust, etc.), a sincere assessment of his life and his work at the time when the publication of his complete Works begins at Marguerat. It is also a conversation at the Montaigne with its readers. The manuscript is signed and dated in ink at the bottom of page 44: "Jean Cocteau mai 1946"; it is again dated at the end: "5 juillet 1946/Mon anniversaire". It is written on the front of the sheets, about half on lined letterhead paper, the other half on letterhead at 36, rue de Montpensier (only five verses have been written), in black or night blue ink (2 pages in pencil). Most of the pages are encrypted, the part written in Morzine and completed in May 1946 is numbered continuously; some chapters have their own numbering; some are not paginated. The uncertainties of the costing reflect a subsequent arrangement between the parties. The manuscript is extensively corrected, with more than 2200 corrections with modifications, two full pages crossed out and more than 120 crossed out lines; so
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue