Benjamin FONDANE

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, one of 500 numbered copies on Featherweight, the only deluxe issue.
Small loss and foxing to the headcap and upper edge, a crease and minor tears to the front cover, endpapers slightly toned without consequence.
Exceptional signed autograph presentation from Benjamin Fondane: « A Jacques Prévert cordialement. B. Fondane. Paris / 3 / 33. »

First edition of this important and very rare magazine, complete with 4 issues in 3 volumes. 

Complete collection of this luxurious Surrealist magazine, edited and funded by Lise Deharme and characterized by its emphasis on photography. Covers illustrated by Man Ray, illustrations in black.

Contributions by Salvador Dali, Hans Arp, Dora Maar, Oscar Dominguez, Brassaï, Lee Miller, Jacques Lacan, James Joyce, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Ilarie Voronca, Nathalie Barney, Benjamin Fondane, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Alejo Carpentier, Eugène Jolas, Lise Hirtz [Lise Deharme], Raymond Queneau, Claude Sernet, Roger Vitrac, Robert Desnos, Jean Follain, Léon-Paul Fargue, Pierre Keffer, Jacques Baron, Gottried Benn, Céline Arnauld, Monny de Boully, Georgette Camille, André de Richaud, Jules Supervielle, Claire Goll, Paul Laforgue, David Herbert Lawrence, Marcel Jouhandeau, Paul Dermée, Jean Painlevé, Nadar, Pétrus Borel and Stendhal. Sunned spine on the No. 3/4 issue. Spine-ends and corners slightly rubbed, otherwise a wonderfully preserved copy. 

A very fine example of this rare avant-garde magazine, which "came into being over the course of a few dinners that brought together the dissidents of Surrealism and other poets in this hospitable abode [of Lise Deharme]. Robert Desnos provided the title. Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes was the editor. Man Ray had designed the cover: a silhouette of a lighthouse against a photographic background of sailing boats. [...] It contains curiosities: a tale by Petrus Borel, a photo by Nadar, popular songs, an investigation into the neurosis of war, epitaphs taken from a cemetery of animals. Among other curiosities, a sonnet by the famous psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. It is entitled Hiatus irrationalis." (Jacques Baron, Cahiers de l'Herne Raymond Queneau, p. 333).