Investigations

"New York likes neither to sit nor to lie down. It's a city that sleeps standing."

He explored all manner of art forms, from drawing to ceramics. The insatiable genius even tried his hand at theater with his play Le désir attrapé par la queue. Yet there was one he seemed to shy away from: the "graphic" art of the letter! <b></b>Despite his prolific correspondence, Picasso's entirely autographed letters are extremely rare, as Laurence Madeline points out in her article on the confidential activity of the great artist:“The inertia paralyzing Picasso, who preferred his work as an artist to that of a secretary, made the letters he took pleasure in writing more essential and more touching” (Laurence Madeline, “Picasso épistolier”, L'Herne, n° 106).And yet, when the immense artist puts pen to paper, he transforms the seemingly insignificant letter into a pictorial and multicolored masterpiece!

After the festive indulgences of the Christian celebrations in December and January, Le Feu Follet takes you on the trail of a modern disciple of Saint Francis, Charles de Foucauld, who, like his illustrious predecessor, laid down his arms for a life of asceticism and altruism. Written from his hermitage in the Hoggar, on the Assekrem plateau, the previously unpublished letter presented today bears witness to the life of an ascetic hermit among the Tuaregs, authored by one of the very rare contemporary Saints.

As 2024 marks the 100th year anniversary of Kafka's passing, it is an ideal time to explore his writings and persona from a different perspective.

Exceptional collection of autographed and printed archives - the last in private hands - belonging to the founder of liberalism and modern economics, Léon Walras, preserved and annotated by William Jaffé. One of the 5 most important archival collections of a theorician Schumpeter considered "the greatest of all economists".Edition-originale retraced the eventful journey of the manuscripts and printed works by France's greatest economist, repeatedly in danger of being completely lost, until these last archives were saved in-extremis from destruction.

At the invitation of a discreet literary magazine, the Feu Follet bookstore was recently invited to share its view on a venial sin of the bibliophile, the handwritten annotation on books known as marginalia. This offense for some, an offering for others, has a history as old as the book and has inspired this new investigation. How can we trace the history and importance of these annotations which flourished from the outset on the margins of printed matter?

“Denoël [My publisher], the three little dots didn't appeal to him. Frightened, he was. Reproving. We were leaving good tradition, repudiating all form: it was no longer attached to anything... Ah, this time, my publisher was no longer ensuring the novel's success! He had to absolve himself of any responsibility. To walk away from the gambling table...‘Dear Céline', he began, ‘I'm afraid you've made a mistake... Let's see, even for a man like you, there are limits, a measure to be kept!'His features were severe, his gaze perplexed, his voice anguished (but very dignified). Brave Denoël! ‘My good friend, I warn you. And then there was something else. These passages were too daring, really too daring! Of course, art has its rights, but still...' ”

"Yes, I am an engineer, and it is indeed the simplest, in three letters, of all professions."

Exceptional and very aesthetic card from Albert Einstein to “the friend of the greatest geniuses of his time” – according to Schrödinger – the mathematician and physicist Ludwig Hopf, who allowed Einstein to meet another genius of the 20th century: Carl Jung . Here the master invites his student to a dinner including among the guests the scientist Max Abraham, future great rival of the Zurich years and fervent opponent of Einstein's theory of relativity.