André BRETON.

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Lot n° 87
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André BRETON.
Entrance to the Mediums. No place or date [October 1922]. Autograph manuscript mounted on tabs of 18 pages in-4, numbered 1-7, 7bis, 7ter, 8-15, 15 on the letterhead of the "Congrès de Paris", 3 on the letterhead of the journal "Littérature Nouvelle série": cover of strong parma paper with autograph title on the first cover, black Bradel-style binding (G. Gauché). Precious autograph manuscript of a capital text in the history of the surrealist movement: hot testimony of the experience of the sleepings and theoretical development concerning psychic automatisms. Offering some annotations and corrections by Breton's hand, the manuscript was used for the composition of the text in view of its publication in the review Littérature (n° 6 of November 1, 1922). Breton first summarizes the research of the surrealist group on the borders of the unconscious: In 1919 my attention was fixed on the more or less partial sentences which, in the midst of solitude, at the approach of sleep, become perceptible to the mind without it being possible to discover a prior determination. These phrases, remarkably imagined and of a perfectly correct syntax, appeared to me as poetic elements of the first order. [...] later ... Soupault and I thought of voluntarily reproducing in ourselves the state in which they were formed. I have never ceased to be persuaded that nothing that is said or done is worth anything except obedience to this magical dictation. [...] I had recently come to think that the incursion into this domain of conscious elements placing it under a literary human will, well determined, delivered it to a less and less fruitful exploitation. It is in this context that metapsychic experiences reported by René Crevel on his return from vacation seem to open the way to more advanced explorations. Thus, Crevel initiated the group into hypnotic sleep on September 25, in the presence of Desnos, Max Morise and Breton himself. Desnos, who considered himself the most unsuitable to offer such manifestations, discovered on this occasion exceptional mediumistic abilities. In the months that followed and until March 1923, he was to play the pre-eminent role of "sleeper". And Breton reports on the menu of some significant sessions with a transcription of the interrogations to which they gave rise. At the end of the manuscript he inserts the transcription of three sessions written at the time of the events. Among these sheets, three pages dedicated to a spoken session by Crevel are in another hand, probably that of Robert Desnos. After an intense practice during the months of October, November and December 1922, the group, tested by these experiments, had to put an end to them in February 1923. Entrée des médiums appeared from 1924 onwards in the collection Les Pas perdus (1924). A second manuscript of 9 sheets, less complete, is kept in the Doucet Library. (Breton, OEuvres complètes I, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1988, pp. 273-279.)
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