Lot n° 101
Estimation :
6000 - 8000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 7 680EUR
BENJAMIN PÉRET
16 autograph letters signed to Henri Parisot. 16 pp. in-4 and in-8, in his very fine handwriting, some written on extremely fine paper. Mexico City (8) and Paris, 1945-1953 and n.d.
Very beautiful correspondence, especially during his exile in Mexico, near Leonora Carrington, about his publications and the difficulties he encountered for his return to France. "Your letter surprised me all the more last week, as the day before we had talked about you Leonora and I. You have thus passed through this period without any hindrance, so much the better. Unfortunately, I have not published anything in Mexico. Breton published a text of mine in New York. Unfortunately, I cannot send you a copy on good paper, because I don't know if there were any, but I didn't receive one. As for "Le déshonneur des poètes", if Godet does not publish it, would you ask him to publish it in your magazine, it is of the appropriate length. For "L'âge d'or", I will soon send you a text on the Mayan ruins that I have just visited. It will be preceded by "Ruins: ruins of ruins" that I do not have here but that you surely have in Minotaure. As for the other illustrated collection that I propose to republish in a single volume: "Au 125 du bd Saint-Germain", "Il était une boulangère", "Et les seins mouraient", as well as the tales published in La Révolution surréaliste and Le Surréalisme ASDLR [au service de la révolution] (with the exception of "Ces animaux de la famille" that I don't like) If it suits you, would you ask Brauner for illustrations? [...]. Here, unfortunately, nothing happens. It's like being in a small, very dirty provincial hole. I hope to return next spring. I hope so, because there are a lot of difficulties to solve, not the least of which is certainly the question of money. I didn't get rich in the trade of goods or "ideas", like, it seems, the Eluards & other Aragons. But this holiday lasts a little too long [...]". "It is obvious that I have no problem with your reproducing in "L'Évidence surréaliste" an important fragment of "Dernier malheur, dernière chance", even if it means publishing it in its entirety in your series L'Âge d'or, as you propose in your letter of December 5. I would prefer that you publish only a part of the series of poems "Un point c'est tout" in this same issue, so that there would be some unpublished material for "Feu central" [...]. I still don't know when or how I will be able to return to Paris. I have no way of paying the 6 to 800 dollars or so it would cost to travel from here to Paris, nor even the means to obtain a visa because of my adventures in 1940. Somebody in a good position would have to take the necessary steps to obtain my repatriation [...]". "I had not noticed that you chose "poems" by Cocteau, otherwise I would not have waited for the protest to join. I don't understand how you, who have always shown such a sure taste, put your hands in this disgusting trash of Cocteau. You know perfectly well, however, what a special talent this individual has for depoticizing everything he touches, for soiling everything he looks at [...]". "I am writing to Miss Lambert, but I want to give you some information that I will not give her, not knowing whether it is necessary or not and whether I can speak frankly. For example: I have not said anything about my misadventures in 1940 with the French police, which are at the very origin of my departure, because having been released by the Nazis for 1,000 francs, it was quite obvious in the winter of 1940 that this was a very temporary freedom. When I arrived in Mexico, I did not think I should join de Gaulle, because I believed that a general could only be distinguished from a marshal by the latter's baton. He talks about his work at the embassy and for the review of the French Institute of Latin America. Henri Parisot offers to take care of his repatriation but Péret hesitates because in France he will find himself without work, without money and without housing. He would like to have some guarantees. "I have finally finished the text on the ruins of Chichen-Itza, I am only waiting for the photos to be sent [...]. For the Central Fire: as soon as you see the book of the "Sagittarius" announced, you can give it to compose so that it can come out soon after. I will be curious to see the reactions of the press regarding the Dishonor of the Poets, and I would be grateful if you would send me the most significant clippings. Leonora called me yesterday [...]". He received the clippings on The Dishonor of the Poets. "You can see that I have crushed a few toes with horns. So much the better! My return is alas! more difficult than ever because of this band of bastards who reign at the moment in the embassy [...]". He gives news of Leonora Carrington "very busy with
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