Paul ÉLUARD

The first edition on simili-Japon paper.
Bradel grey cloth binding, navy blue cloth band with authors and title blindstamped to edge of upper board, upper cover preserved at end.
With 21 collages by Max Ernst.
A very good and rare copy.

First edition on ordinary paper, issued after the destruction of the 1923 printing following a dispute between Tzara and the publisher.
Double autograph inscription, signed and dated by Tristan Tzara, first to Paul Éluard – « à Paul Éluard. Tristan Tzara. Juillet 1929 » – then, after striking through this initial dedication, to René Char in September 1934: « à René Char avec toute l'amitié grande de Tristan Tzara ». This second inscription is further embellished with a small drawing by Tzara, a hand pointing with its index finger to Char’s name.

First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on vellum, ours unnumbered, the only deluxe papers after 15 copies on Japon.
Illustrated with a frontispiece drawing by Salvador Dalí.
Precious signed autograph presentation from Paul Eluard to René Char : « Exemplaire de mon ami René Char. Paul Eluard. »

First edition, one of 950 copies on Vélin Vidalon signed by André Marchand, the only printing following 49 copies on Vélin d'Arches.

Bound in black morocco-backed boards with corners, smooth spine, gilt fillet borders on cat's eye paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, all edges gilt. Slipcase edged in black morocco, marbled paper panels. Binding signed by D. Saporito.

Illustrated with 50 splendid original lithographs by André Marchand, printed by Mourlot.

Featuring previously unpublished texts by Georges Spyridaki, René Lacôte, Georges Hugnet, Gabriel Audisio, Raymond Queneau, David Herbert Lawrence, Pierre Emmanuel, Luc Decaunes, Léon-Marie Brest, Jean Grenier, Antonio Machado, Marie Mauron, Paul Eluard...

A handsome and finely bound copy.

First edition illustrated with 12 full-page plates by Françoise Gilot, one of only 115 numbered copies on Arches vellum, the deluxe issue.

Our copy is indeed accompanied by an original lithograph by Françoise Gilot on a separate leaf.

A very good copy.

Paul Éluard’s handwritten signature on the limitation page, lightly and partially shaded as on the facing page.

First edition and complete run of the 9 G.L.M. cahiers issued between May 1936 and March 1939.

A few spines slightly faded, as is often the case; otherwise a pleasing copy, complete with its original publisher’s slipcase in full grey boards, with red printed title label pasted to the spine.

With numerous contributions by most of the Surrealist poets, writers, and artists, including: André Breton, René Char, Paul Éluard, Philippe Soupault, René Crevel, Valentine Penrose, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Michel Leiris, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and André Masson, as well as several spiritual forebears of Surrealism such as Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, and Raymond Roussel...

First edition featuring the celebrated original color stencil "Aidez l'Espagne!", printed on Arches paper by Joan Miró.
With literary contributions by Christian Zervos on Pablo Picasso's "Guernica", as well as texts by Jean Cassou, Georges Duthuit, Pierre Mabille, Michel Leiris, Paul Éluard, René Char...
Illustrated with numerous reproductions of works by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró’s "Le faucheur".
Some rubbing and small tears to the spine, as often, a vertical crease to the rear wrapper, otherwise a fresh and well-preserved copy.

First edition of this pamphlet, with contributions by Éluard, Tzara, Marcel Duchamp under his pseudonym Rrose Sélavy, Benjamin Péret, Erik Satie, Philippe Soupault, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Vincente Huidboro, Walter Serner, Matthew Josephson, Théodore Fraenkel.
Three copies found in institutions (BnF, Thomas J. Watson Library, Princeton University Library, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries - Art Institute of Chicago).
Cover designed by Ilia Zdanevich (Iliazd) on a motif created out of 19th-century woodcuts: “The cover of Le Coeur à barbe is an emblematic image of the Dada aesthetic, where old engravings are combined with words to create visual puns and unpredictable associations.” (Princeton University Museum).
Extremely rare copy in excellent condition of the only published issue of this famous Dada journal - Tristan Tzara's counterattack to André Breton's criticism in the March 2, 1922 issue of Comœdia.

Newspaper Clipping Annotated by Paul Éluard

First edition, one of the press service copies.
Precious signed autograph inscription from Paul Éluard to Benjamin Fondane.
Spine with three small expertly repaired tears, of no consequence.
A moving dedication from poet to poet, written on the eve of the war during which the two friends would contribute together to poetic resistance journals such as l'Honneur des poètes.
The deportation and death of Fondane in 1944, along with many other artist and poet friends, would profoundly affect Éluard, who composed in their memory a magnificent poetic tribute, "Eternité de ceux que je n'ai pas revus," listing the names of each of the departed:
"Visages clairs souvenirs sombres
Puis comme un grand coup sur les yeux
Visages de papier brûlé
Dans la mémoire rien que cendres
La rose froide de l'oubli
Pourtant Desnos pourtant Péri
Crémieux Fondane Pierre Unik
Sylvain Itkine Jean Jausion
Grou-Radenez Lucien Legros
Le temps le temps insupportable
Politzer Decour Robert Blache
Serge Meyer Mathias Lübeck
Maurice Bourdet et Jean Frayse
Dominique Corticchiato
Et Max Jacob et Saint-Pol Roux
Rien que le temps de n'être plus
Et rien que le temps d'être tout"

First edition on ordinary paper.
Handsome autograph inscription from Paul Eluard to Raymond Queneau on the first volume: "... ce livre qui nous rajeunit...[…this book that makes us young again…]"

First edition, one of the numbered copies on deluxe paper, the only large-paper issue after 109 reimposed copies.

Fine copy.

First edition, one of 894 numbered copies on pur fil paper, the only deluxe paper issue after 109 reimposed copies.

A fine copy.

Pre-publication edition of the most celebrated poem of the French Resistance: "Liberté, j'écris ton nom" by Paul Éluard.
Other contributions include André Gide’s "Trois rencontres avec Verlaine", Jean Cayrol, Luc Dietrich on "Le Chiffre des choses", Gabriel Audisio, and Albert Béguin.

Bradel binding in full paper, smooth spine, cream paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, binding signed Thomas Boichot.
Minor tears without loss along the margins of the covers, a light dampstain at the head of the first few leaves.

First state of the text with two words in the plural: “désirs” and “souvenirs” in stanzas 19 and 20, later changed to the singular. True original of the first public appearance (the publication in Poésie et Vérité 1942, antedated to April 3, 1942, was in fact printed only at the end of 1942 in a clandestine run of 65 copies). The manuscript sent to Max-Pol Fouchet, editor of the journal Fontaine, originally bore the title Une seule pensée, which was struck out and replaced by Liberté. However, Fouchet preferred to retain the less explicit version. In his memoirs, he explains that by means of this subterfuge he managed to secure official authorization from the censorship office in Algiers by passing the text off as a love poem.
This poem, which appeared at least ten times during the Second World War, would become the emblem of the Resistance and one of the most famous poems of the twentieth century. First publications (after the catalogue of the Max-Pol Fouchet library sale, 8 October 2022, which included the manuscript of the poem):
- Fontaine, No. 22, June 1942. First public appearance (approved and authorized by the censor), under the title “Une seule pensée.”
- Candide No. 963, 2 September 1942, excerpt (the final two stanzas).
- La France libre (London) No. 23, 15 September 1942 (under the title “Une seule pensée” and unsigned).
- Poésie et Vérité 1942, La Main à plume, late September 1942 and antedated to 3 April 1942 (to circumvent Vichy censorship). True first edition and first appearance of the poem under the title “Liberté.” In this version, one of the two words (“désirs”) is plural and the other (“souvenir”) singular.
- Cahiers du Rhône (Neuchâtel, La Baconnière), January 1943, under the title “Une seule pensée.”
- Revue du monde libre (London) No. 4, April 1943 (title: “Une seule pensée,” both “désirs” and “souvenirs” plural), small-format edition parachuted by the R.A.F.
- France-Amérique (New York), 19 December 1943 (title: “Une seule pensée,” both “désirs” and “souvenirs” plural).
- Éditions des Francs-tireurs partisans français du Lot [Cahors, circa 1944–1945] (under the definitive title “Liberté”).
- Fontaine, special issue (Conscience de la France), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1945 (title “Une seule pensée,” both “désir” and “souvenir” singular).
- Au rendez-vous allemand, expanded to include Poésie et Vérité 1942, Éditions de Minuit, April 1945.
 

Extremely rare first edition of this pro­gram leaflet by the Studio 28 cinema, founded by Jean Mauclaire, featuring texts by the Surrealist group on Luis Buñuel's film L'Âge d'or.
Slight lacks on the spine, with two small tears at the head and foot, and a shad­ow mark at the head of the first cover.
Handwritten bookplate "Jean Vigo" — likely autograph — inscribed in black ink in the lower right corner of the page featuring Salvador Dalí's illustra­tion.
Literary contributions by Louis Aragon, André Breton, René Char, Salvador Dalí, Paul Éluard, Georges Sadoul and Tristan Tzara.
The program is illustrated with works by Hans Arp, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and Yves Tanguy, as well as numer­ous stills from Buñuel's L'Âge d'or.
A very rare copy of this very fragile programme of Luis Buñuel's film, with well-preserved gilt covers. With an exceptional provenance, it belonged to the filmmaker Jean Vigo, the cele­brated director of L'Atalante, a rebel­lious figure in cinema with a dazzling career. An admirer of Buñuel's work, Vigo also wrote a glowing review of Le Chien andalou.

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Directed by Luis Buñuel in 1930 with a screenplay co-written by Salvador Dalí, L'Âge d'Or is the paragon of avant-garde and Surrealist cinema. Commissioned by Charles de Noailles, whose wife Marie-Laure de Noailles was one of France's wealthiest, the film was first shown in July 1930 in the De Noailles mansion. It was later shown on Octo­ber, 22 at the Panthéon Rive Gauche and on November 28 and December 3, 1930, at Studio 28 in Montmartre. During the final screening, the theater was vandalized by far-right militants shouting, "Let's see if there are any Christians left in France" and "Death to the Jews". They threw ink at the screen, released smoke bombs and stink bombs, and forced the audience to leave. The film was immediately censored for its anti-patriotic and an­ti-Christian content, and seized on De­cember, 12.
This "Revue-programme" [program leaflet], divided into 2 parts (the leaflet is to be flipped upside-down to read the second half), was published for the Studio 28 screenings in 1930. One part, the largest, of 38 pages, is devoted to Luis Buñuel's film and begins with a short text by Salvador Dali: "My gener­al idea when writing the script of L'Âge d'or with Buñuel was to present the straight and pure line of "conduct" of a being who pursues love through the despicable humanitarian, patriotic, and other wretched mechanisms of reality". The program includes the film's script, subtitles, dialogue, and a long essay ending with "Aspect social - éléments subversifs" written by the leading Sur­realists of the time. It also features the Catalogue des oeuvres exposées au Studio 28 ('Catalog of works exhibited at Studio 28'), a list of Surrealist books available at Corti's bookstore, and thirty black-and-white stills from the film.
Cinephile turned filmmaker, Jean Vigo was drawn to Buñuel's Surrealism in his first cinematic work, À Propos de Nice (1930), which includes surrealist-in­spired scenes such as bare feet being waxed and a woman smoking a cigarette before suddenly disrobing. This social documentary premiered two months before L'Âge d'or. Vigo had already ad­mired the "savage poetry" of Un chien andalou in an film critic that remains authoritative. Like Buñuel, Vigo was no stranger to scandal with his film Zero for Conduct (1933), heavily influenced by his difficult childhood and murdered anarchist father. It remained censored for over fifteen years. Shortly before Vigo's early death, the two filmmakers joined the Association des Écrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires. Vigo's short-lived career was rediscovered by the Nouvelle Vague, notably Truffaut, who was"immediately overcome with an in­tense admiration for this [Vigo's] body of work, whose total runtime does not even reach 200 minutes".
An exceptional copy linking two tow­ering figures of cinema—Surrealist and Impressionist—indisputably connect­ed by their poetic and rebellious por­trayals of bourgeois society.
Provenance: Jean Vigo; Claude Aveline, his executor.

"An eagle, on a rock, contemplates the blissful horizon. An eagle defends the movement of the spheres. Soft colors of charity, sadness, gleams on the gaunt trees, lyre in spider web-star, men who under all skies are alike are as silly on earth as in heaven. And the one who drags a knife in the high grass, in the grass of my eyes, of my hair and of my dreams, the one who carries in his arms all the signs of shadow, fell, speckled with azure, on the four-colour flowers.” (Mourir de ne pas mourir – 1924 with a frontispiece portrait of Eluard by Ernst)