Pierre KLOSSOWSKI

Handwritten letter signed by the writer Pierre Klossowski addressed to Maurice Béjart, dated 5 August 1969.
58 lines written in black ink on three leaves.
Interesting letter regarding choreographer Maurice Béjart's project to adapt Klossowski's Baphomet into a ballet.
Klossowski had met Maurice Béjart through a mutual friend, the writer and film maker François Weyergans. The idea of a ballet based on Klossowski's book Le Baphomet was born out of this meeting. This medieval baroque tale, published four years earlier, recounted the mystical vicissitudes and the religious divides of the Templar. The writer, obsessed by the project, confided his doubts about such an undertaking, which seemed impossible to achieve due to the many pitfalls: "Plus je m'évertue à esquisser quelques ébauches de synopsis, et plus sûrement je m'égare [...] je n'arrive pas à sortir d'une visualisation théâtrale” “The more I strive to sketch out the draft of the synopsis, the more I lose my way [...] I am not able to escape a theatrical visualisation.” There are fascinating passages questioning the relative permeability between the literary text and the ballet scene: "Il me semble maintenant que c'est non point le tableau mais la trame verbale - le mouvement de la parole et ses développements qui offriraient les éléments des figures que seul votre génie puisse réinventer à sa guise !” “It now seems to me that it is not the visual picture but the verbal thread - the movement of the words and their developments that would present the characteristics of the characters that only your expertise can reinvent as you please!” At the end of the letter he writes a list of the three scenes to adapt and shares an idea for a very original production: "(J'avais imaginé que l'on assisterait à l'animation de la statue de Ste Thérèse du Bernin - le page simulant la statue - donc jouant la moniale pour figurer le Baphomet - mais voilà encore du « théâtre »)” “(I had imagined that we would see the animation of the Ste Thérèse du Bernin statue - the page resembling the statue - therefore casting the nun to represent Baphomet - well, even more “theatre”)”.
Despite Klossowski's efforts, the collaboration project with Béjart never happened. Nevertheless, the two artists remained close, and their correspondence, of which we still found examples dated 1991, testifies to their longstanding friendship.

Autograph letter signed by the writer Pierre Klossowski addressed, in French, to his Hamburg admirer Ottmar Meisel, dated June 2, 1980, 51 lines written in black ballpoint pen on a recto-verso sheet, envelope included.
Pierre Klossowski emerges from an intense period of artistic production, exclusively pictorial, which has exhausted him: "Forgive my great delay in responding to you: which is explained by a state of extreme fatigue... following much work and, you should know, essentially pictorial: - my paintings, henceforth my exclusive mode of expression, for nearly a decade now! I no longer publish anything, except just a few commentaries relating to this serious mutation."
He also exhibits extensively: "... in Paris, of course, but especially in Belgium, in Italy, in Switzerland. Next year a retrospective of my compositions at the Kunsthalle in Bern. In all these countries, my collectors are not only my former readers, many of them discover in my paintings the atmosphere of my books." and evokes his literary production which almost belongs to another artistic life for him: "My last publications date back to the years 69 and 71: Nietzsche et le cercle vicieux... of which a German translation is to appear... and la Monnaie vivante (Losfeld 71) - theoretical text illustrated with photographic plates. (those quite concrete ones) which already announce the film we made much later in 77 and screened publicly in 79, - on the theme of Roberte ce soir and la Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes. So overall: return from speculation to specularity, from narration to spectacle."
Pierre Klossowski hopes to see his friend again soon and sends him two of his inscribed works: "No doubt these lines will reach you before the copies of Roberte and du Baphomet that I hasten to return to you inscribed..."

First edition, one of 43 numbered copies on wove paper, the only deluxe copies.
Handsome copy despite the spine very lightly yellowed without consequence.

Handwritten letter signed by the writer Pierre Klossowski addressed to Maurice Béjart, dated 4 March 1991.
29 lines written in black ink on one leaf.
Just like a poem, this beautiful and passionate letter was written in a long column of text. Klossowski congratulates the choreographer on his autobiography Mort subite published the same year and is amazed that Béjart's literary tastes are so similar to his own.
In the letter, Pierre Klossowski highlights the affinities that link him to Béjart. He devotes a long passage to Mort subite, Béjart's last book about his famous father, the philosopher Gaston Berger: "La miraculeuse Anwesenheit [présence] d'un tel père suscitée par un tel fils ! A vous lire, je ressens cette célébration dans sa piété filiale toute de joyeuse certitude, à la cadence goethéenne du Roi des Aulnes [...]” “The miraculous Anwesenheit [presence] of such a father sparked off by such a son! To read you, I feel this celebration in his filial piety, all of joyful certainty, to the same rhythm as Goethe's The Erlking [...]” He brings up their shared passion for the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, before mentioning an old collaborative project: "Je n'oublie guère votre visite [...] ni votre idée d'un ballet autour d'un Baphomet invisible...” “I hardly forget your visit [...] nor your idea of a ballet based on Baphomet invisible....” Several years earlier, the Baphomet had already been the object of an abandoned theatre project with the Biennale de Venise. The letter finishes with an allusion to Klossowski's “travail pictural exclusif” “exclusive pictorial work”: his huge production of drawings that kept him busy until the end of his life.

A letter of admiration by Pierre Klossowski concerning Béjart's writing talent and his literary influences.
Provenance: Maurice Béjart's personal archives.

First edition on current paper.
Nice copy.
Signed autograph of Léo Malet to the journalist Jean-Claude Lamy.

First edition, one of the review copies service.
Insolated back.
Autograph dedication dated and signed by Pierre Klossowski to Georgette and Gilbert Minazzoli.

First edition, one of 105 numbered copies on vélin aravis paper, the only large paper copies.
A good copy despite occasional foxing, principally in margins of some leaves.

First edition, one of 37 numbered copies on pur fil du Marais, tirage de tête.
A good copy.

Edition of wich no leading copies exists.
autograph dedication of the author autograph signed and dated by Pierre Klossowski his publisher Jean-Jacques Pauvert and his wife.
Back slightly insolated.

First edition, one of 40 numbered copies on pur fil Lafuma, the only large paper copies along with some hors commerce.
A very good copy.

New edition, a numbered copy on bouffant paper, the only printing with 30 pur fil paper.
Handsome autograph inscription from Pierre Jean Jouve to Raymond Queneau : "... ce génie foudroyé de la poésie with une amicale pensée..." enhanced with an autograph inscription from Pierre Klossowski.
Foreword by Bernard Groethuysen.

First edition, one of 43 numbered copies on pur fil paper, the only large paper copies.
Autograph inscription from Pierre Klossowski to Georg Svastics in Rumanian : "Ad usum Georg Svastics cum respectu valde. Lutetia 1996".
This copy is enriched with an autograph note from the author with his address in Paris.
Tiny insignificant spots to endpapers, a good copy.

First edition, one of 105 numbered copies on vélin aravis, the only large paper copies.
A rare and good copy.

Autograph letter signed by Alain Robbe-Grillet to the literary critic specialized in the New Georges Raillard novel. 6 lines in black ink, envelope attached.

" That's it, I hope I have not forgotten anything!" I shake your hands very warmly Robbe-Grillet "

first edition of the French translation by Pierre Klossowski and printed with 2500 numbered copies.
Autographed autograph dedication of the author from Pierre Klossowski to Pierre Dumayet.
Preface by René Etiemble.
A snag in the center of the first board, two small misses in the head and pie pie of the back.

First edition, review copy.
autograph dedication of the author autograph dated Pierre Klossowski Roland Barthes: "... in any true affection ..."
Back insolated.

Collective Edition, review copy.
autograph dedication of the author autograph signed and dated by Pierre Klossowski Professor Georges Blin.
spine and boards slightly and marginally insolated, complete copy of his prayer to insert.

Edition, review copy.
autograph dedication of the author autograph signed by Pierre Klossowski in Charlotte Wolf.

First edition, one of 1500 numbered copies on vélin supérieur paper, the only large paper copies with 30 on vélin du marais paper.
A good copy.

New edition.
A good copy.

First edition on ordinary paper.
A very good copy.

Edition illustrated by the author, one of 2000 numbered copies, the only issue.
Handsome copy.