Lot n° 206
Estimation :
15000 - 20000
EUR
QUENEAU Raymond - Lot 206
QUENEAU Raymond
Autograph MANUSCRIPTS on MATHEMATICS; about 3,500 pages, mainly in-4; plus typescripts and various documents; all kept in 10 binders and 3 boxes.
A very important set of notes and manuscripts, which testify to Queneau's passion for calculus and mathematics throughout his life.
We can only give a brief overview of this monumental set.
It is known that Raymond Queneau was passionate about mathematics all his life. It was with a real greed that he immersed himself in the most learned calculations, as evidenced by his dignity as honorary member of the "Confrérie des dégustateurs de nombres" created by his accomplice
François Le Lionnais. Also a member of the most serious Mathematical Society of France since 1948, and of the American Mathematical Society
, he was in epistolary contact with the greatest mathematicians, as attested in particular here by the letters of the great logician Georg
KREISEL. And it was André Lichnerowicz who presented Queneau's note on s-additive sequences to the Academy of
Sciences.
His work in the mathematical field does not constitute a parallel activity to his literary work. On the contrary, the two are closely intertwined, as the presence of calculations on the backs of manuscripts of poems or typescripts of novels indicates. Without even mentioning the creation of the Oulipo, whose declared aim is to apply mathematical constraints to literary texts, the study of
Queneau's manuscripts shows that, from the very beginning, his novels and poems are based on hidden mathematical structures.
But Raymond Queneau was also a "pure" mathematician, who could spend hours covering sheets of paper with calculations and equations. One of his most original contributions is his research on "additive sequences": one cannot help but be struck by the vertiginous character of these sequences of numbers.
He also prided himself on being a historian of mathematics, and we have here his longest text in this discipline with the manuscript of his study devoted to David HILBERT (1862-1943).
If Raymond Queneau was not himself a professional mathematician, he was capable of sustaining an exchange with the greatest minds in this field. He is, after Descartes, the only writer to have integrated mathematical elements into a literary work. In his eyes, there was no opposition between the two fields. "The whole of science, in its completed form, will present itself both as a technique and as a game, that is to say, simply as the other human activity, art, presents itself. In this respect, the documents collected in this set are a crucial element for the understanding of his work and personality.
A. Learning.
9 schoolbooks plus scattered leaves (approx. 500 p.): "Higher Algebra", "Mathematics", "Section D Logic of relations", "Part
III Cardinal Arthmetic", "Roots and powers. Graphical representations etc.", "Game theory".
These notebooks testify to the assiduity with which Queneau studied algebra and mathematics. Some of them are real little manuals prepared by the writer, who drew up the table of contents. His readings are impressive. There are notes taken from works by mathematicians from the beginning of the century, as well as a very thorough synthesis of the Principles of Logistics by Robert Feys, or entire pages in English, based on a work on logic. All these pages that Raymond Queneau kept throughout his life constitute the theoretical basis from which his own research will develop.
B. Les suites.
Important collection of about 1,500 pages of Queneau's research and calculations on the theory of numbers, mainly on "s-additive sequences". There are a thousand sheets of calculations and sequences of numbers, sometimes spread out in tables on four pages glued end to end, exploring various data: " ?=0, n=4 " (13 p.), " s=1, u=2 " (14 p.), " s=1, u=2 " (17 p.), " U=2v+3 " (30 p.), " s=0, u=2 " (36 p.), etc, or "Generating functions", "Natural sequences", "Enumeration", "Density", "1st disturbed term", "Advanced results", etc. Some of these calculations are made on the back of the typescripts of Les Fleurs Bleues or Courir les Rue, others are noted on the back of invitation cards.
In addition to various drafts, there are at least four successive versions of the note to the Académie des Sciences, one of which is entitled "Propriétés élémentaires des suites s-additives. Exposé de 1966", and 9 copies of the offprint of the report of May 6, 1968, one of which with autograph corrections. This two-page report summarizes a talk of about 40 pages, presented to the Académie des Sciences on 29 April 1968, as shown in the autographed manuscripts.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue