Lot n° 164
Estimation :
4000 - 5000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 8 846EUR
Paul Eluard.
Poetry and Truth 1942. Poem. Paris, Éditions de la Main à Plume, Noël Arnaud, 1942.
In-12 : red calf, smooth spine, author's name and title in black calf mosaic letters on the first board, interior fillet, red suede lining and endpapers, gilt edges, all margins preserved, parchment paper cover printed in red and black, folder, slipcase (Pierre-Lucien Martin, 1970)
First edition. Completed at the fictitious date of April 3, 1942 - in reality the volume went to press in September.
One of four copies on japon impérial (nº 3), second large paper after a single copy on japon nacré.
First publication of liBerté J'écriS ton nom.
"In Paris, in the occupied zone, Eluard's poem was printed in September 1942 in a semi-clandestine pamphlet, Poésie et Vérité 1942, by a group of turbulent young Surrealists, "La Main à Plume", with whom Eluard was soon to have a falling out: the poem appeared there for the first time under its defiant title, Liberté. Carelessly displayed in the window of the Gallimard bookshop on Boulevard Raspail, the booklet attracted the attention of a German offi cer who demanded its immediate withdrawal" (Archives littéraires sous l'Occupation, p. 234.)
The famous ode to liberty thus became, even before the Liberation, an extraordinary vector of resistance, reproduced and disseminated without hindrance. With a lyricism close to a song, easy to remember by heart and spread by word of mouth, Liberté embodied the model par excellence of contraband poetry. It was set to music by Francis Poulenc at the end of the war.
Signed autograph letter on the false title: to Georges Spyridaki this first letter with my friendship,
Paul Eluard 6 October 1942
Poet and translator (notably of Reverdy), director of the Greek pavilion of the university campus, Georges
Spyridaki was a member of the Resistance. His poem Mort lucide was published in L'Honneur des poètes in May 1944 by Editions de Minuit.
Superb binding by Pierre-Lucien Martin.
The copy has been preserved at full margins, i.e. in the in-8 format.
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