COCTEAU Jean - Lot 135

Lot n° 135
Go to lot
Estimation :
500 - 600 EUR
COCTEAU Jean - Lot 135
COCTEAU Jean L.A.S. "Jean", Palais-Royal 20 January 1956, to "Mon voisin très chéri" Emmanuel BERL; 2 pages in-4 very full, envelope. Long letter on the Académie française and the candidacy of historian Jacques Chastenet. Many incises and comments are added in the margin, or topsy-turvy, all around the letter. "I don't know yet if I will receive CHASTENET under the academic dome but I will receive it under yours (since you cap on my head at the Royal Palace) and I will receive it against my love of deep accuracy. I do not blame him for anything as far as I am concerned, except for a dedication contradicted by the texts (his Fallières). Once again my long crusade against intellectualism, of which France is dying, is taken for grace and dangerous jumps. This leads to a mound of common places on the right and left [...] The academy was the only place of refuge I could find. I blame your boyfriend for only painting the top. On the other hand, I prefer historians and dukes and ambassadors to the dadais of contemporary literature"... He notes this quatrain: "He who is chaste is born/Sometimes the rest is born/S'he does not have his jacket/We return. Short books too chaste. Not to be confused with books that are too pure"... He recommends not to show this letter: "The bomb in my newspaper should not explode until after my death. The earth is a bad joke and space time a lie of which we are the fools. But if you don't kill yourself, you have to try to take this joke seriously. I am looking for a man around me who, without being fooled, would do justice under an oak tree. It is likely that the only historians worthy of the name in France are Michelet and Alexandre Dumas".... Etc.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue