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André MALRAUX

"Feu Max Jacob laisse une fortune de deux francs cinquante" : amusante lettre autographe signée à Max Jacob enrichie d'un dessin

s.l. s.d. (1929), 13,1x17,3cm, deux pages sur un bifeuillet.

| “but the truck, more resilient, regained the upper hand and reduced the great poet to mud" |

Autograph letter signed by André Malraux to Max Jacob. Two pages in black ink on a bifolium, with a drawing by Malraux.
Partially transcribed in Histoires littéraires, 2002, p. 123.
Hilarious letter by Malraux - waiting for Max Jacob to reply to his letters, he writes a false obituary announcing his correspondent's death. He added a drawing of a cat profile next to his signature.

“We are informed that our unfortunate colleague Max Jacob, whom intensive training made presumptuous, has just passed away most unfortunately. Having encountered an automobile truck, he rushed wildly at it and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. For a moment, it looked as if our valiant colleague would win the day: but the truck, more resilient, regained the upper hand and reduced the great poet to mud.
As a result, he was unable to reply to letters from friends, who sent him eleven-page letters by post.
The late Max Jacob leaves a fortune of two francs thirty five which, at his wish, was immediately bequeathed to pious foundations.
[...]
I intend to write to you again soon, but I would be happy to be informed - at least - of your existence, which I most value [...]”.

The letter may date from the months following Max Jacob's - real - car accident in 1929, which led to several months of silent convalescence. The painter-poet had introduced young André to Parisian artistic and literary life ten years earlier. Malraux quoted him in his essay on Cubist painting, and dedicated to him is very first book, Les Lunes de papier, published in 1921. He was no stranger to writing long letters to his mentor and friend, hence the reference to “his friends who send him eleven-page letters by post”.
A rare testimony of Malraux and Max Jacob's comical and affectionate correspondence.

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