Paul Éluard
French poet, 1895-1952
"Paul Éluard, who grew up in a Parisian middle-class home, contracted tuberculosis in his adolescence and had to undergo several treatments. During treatment in Davos he met his first wife and muse Gala. While at the Sanatorium Éluard published his first poems in 1913. Jean Paulhan introduced Éluard to André Breton and his circle in 1919. After Breton published the ""Surrealist Manifesto"" in 1924, Éluard adapted his poetry to the principles of surrealism. In 1937 Paul Éluard described surrealism as a state of mind and as an insurrection against the bourgeoisie. Poets and writers, to him, are society's conscience."
Source: Wikipedia
Dichter (1895-1952). "Le mirage". Autograph poem. O. O. u. D. 1 S. Gr.-4to.
$ 2,645 / 2.500 €
(49330/BN33665)
"Est-ce dit | Le regard de torture | Le regard plus inquiet qu'un rat chez les bêtes | Inquier d'une femme cachée | Refusée | Qui ressemble à ce que je n'écris pas." - Éluard's poem was first published in "La vie immèdiate" in 1932. - Formerly framed and strongly browned.
French poet (1895-1952). "Le temps d'un éclair". Autograph poem signed. N. p. Folio (ca. 267 x 407 mm). 1 p. (17 lines). Framed and glazed (457 x 599 mm).
$ 8,994 / 8.500 €
(88864/BN58807)
Spectacular manuscript written on paper with a gilt-stamped border and illustrated with a photograph pasted and captioned by Paul Éluard. The poem "Le temps d'un éclair" was published in Éluard's anthology "La Vie immédiate" (1932): "Elle n'est pas là. / La femme au tablier guette la pluie aux vitres / En spectacle tous les nuages jouent au plus fin / Une fillette de peu de poids / Passée au bleu / Joue sur un canapé crevé / Le silence a des remords [...]". - The small photograph (60 x 42 mm), pasted to the left of the first verse, shows the head and torso of a nude young woman.
Éluard quotes his poem in the caption: "Une fillette de peu de poids / Passée au bleu" ("A young girl of little weight / Vanished into the blue"). The slight fading of the photograph even underscores its appropriateness as a congenial illustration of Éluard's poem: the allegory of a young girl's disappearance. - Traces of folds. With minor stains due to abrasions. Formerly in the collection of André Breton..
French poet (1895-1952). "Ramage". Autograph poem. N. p. 8vo. French manuscript in blue ink on green paper. 1 p.
$ 3,703 / 3.500 €
(91586/BN60907)
Important manuscript for the poem "Ramage" ("Bird song") that was originally published in the famous 1944 anthology "L'Honneur des poètes II: Europe" as a purported French translation of an anonymous Dutch poem, but has since been identified as a poem by Éluard (see Scheler, p. 323, note 1). The short poem that consists of three stanzas of varying length and free metre sets an optimistic tone in the face of danger and destruction, asserting that "Our children will be saved" and cursing anyone "who does not know | That the world is not hell!" (transl.).
The poem in full: "Entre tous, toi, | Mon beau pays, | Tu es celui qui mûrit | Et qui prospère, | Entre le ciel et la mer, | Comme un fruit entre le ciel, | Et l'appétit des enfants. | Nos enfants seront sauvés, | avec eux la vie grandit, | Je vois loin et je découvre | Les limites de la terre. | Terre moirée, irisée, | Gaie comme un coq | Et tendre comme un fruit ! | Malheur à qui y mordra ! | Malheur à qui ne sait pas | Que la terre n'est pas l'Enfer !" - The intention behind Paul Éluard's and Jean Lescure's publication of "L'Honneur des poètes II: Europe" in May 1944 was both to oppose the fascist occupation of Europe and "the rise of nationalism in the ranks of the resistance poets themselves" (Lombez, p. 2). Éluard operated undercover in the Lozère region while preparing the anthology. As finding and contacting foreign poets who would contribute new works proved too difficult under these circumstances, Éluard inserted several pseudotranslations such as "Ramage". At the time, the anthology did not have the same impact as the first collection of oppositional poems published under the same title in July 1943. This was probably due to the rapidly changing circumstances following the Allied landing in Normandy on 6 June 1944. - The manuscript at hand is the final version with several corrections. Written in parentheses below the poem: "Traduit du néerlandais". - With collector's notes in pencil. Well preserved..