JEAN COCTEAU

Lot 77
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Estimation :
6000 - 8000 EUR
JEAN COCTEAU
73 autograph letters signed and 1 typed letter signed to Henri Parisot (one letter is written on the typed title page of Orphée). 76 pp. in-4 and in-8. Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (for the most part), 1946-1961. Abundant literary and friendly correspondence, largely devoted to their editorial collaboration. "Here is the work done. 24 poems that I will dedicate to the memory of Baudelaire and Max [Jacob] [...]. The title would be either : Flying saucers, or : One must have a little fun. What do you think of it? [...]. I have just made a shocking discovery: that of the perspectives of time. Twenty years ago I was breaking my nose against this wall. You can imagine the work I am doing. Because I miss the vocabulary of science and the rest would be useless to me". Dedication letter to Henri Parisot as a foreword to Appogiatures: "You asked me to write these texts because those of Opera (which resemble them) please you. They were to begin a new collection under your sign. Circumstances oblige my book to appear alone. But the texts belong to you. I do not even have to offer them to you as a testimony of my friendship, of my respect for the services you have rendered to the secret forces of poetry". Numerous considerations on his health, his state of mind, and the consequences on his work. "I have not ceased to be ill because of the weather in Brittany which does not allow me to go out. I painted and I still paint a lot. It is the only method to empty the body through the eye. I have here the first tale. I will write the others. I am accumulating words for a very difficult piece. This ridiculous health forces me to lose contact with people who can be of service (momentarily). I do not forget my promises." "I have been painting like mad. This week I will write the other tales and try to overcome the obstacles that separate me from my piece. Impossible to do text and supervision of a film. I do not move any more of the Coast". "I am immersed in your two books. And I am preparing an oratorio for Hindemith. Let's leave the day after tomorrow for Rome where the Orpheus II is waiting for us. Leave me these texts on the boat. They must be written in Greece and perhaps eaten by me on Patmos [...]". "I have just returned from Düsseldorf where Bacchus, with Gründgens won a triumph (38 encores). You will receive a new little text tomorrow or the day after - and if you don't give it 3 stars - I will drop dead. "And considerable" refers to the egg and I find it a bit Mallarmenian [...]".
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