« Mais il faut continuer à vivre et pour cela se réserver une part de solitude qu'avec angoisse aussi je vois diminuer chaque jour. »

Unpublished autograph letter signed by André Breton addressed to Gaston Puel; two pages on one leaf written in blue ink with fine and careful handwriting, numerous underlinings.
Foxing and marginal adhesive traces.
A very fine letter, imbued with benevolence, in which the Pope of Surrealism shares his numerous and time-consuming occupations with his young correspondent, while reassuring him about his talent and future.
Gaston Puel began corresponding with André Breton at the Liberation. They had never met at the time of this letter, written four years later: « Je suis heureux que vous ayez pensé à m'adresser votre photographie. C'est un grand pas de fait pour rompre la distance et il ne se peut guère que nous ne nous rencontrions bientôt. » ["I am happy that you thought to send me your photograph. It is a great step towards breaking the distance and it can hardly be that we will not meet soon."] The two writers seem very close, as evidenced by Breton's paternal and reassuring tone: « Ne parlez pas comme à regret de ceux qui avancent : vous en êtes et j'en sais bien peu qui soient si loin que vous, déjà. Ce que vous m'écrivez - pas seulement cette fois - est toujours pour moi de haute importance... » ["Do not speak regretfully of those who advance: you are among them and I know very few who are already as far along as you. What you write to me - not just this time - is always of great importance to me..."] A tireless worker, Breton here shares his frustration and weariness with Puel: « Mais il faut continuer à vivre et pour cela se réserver une part de solitude qu'avec angoisse aussi je vois diminuer chaque jour. » ["But one must continue to live and for that reserve a share of solitude which I also see diminishing each day with anguish."]
Gaston Puel, then 24 years old, had been participating for some time in the activities of the surrealist group around Joë Bousquet, André Breton and René Char. His mentor here predicts a clear future for him: « Mon cher Ami, je souhaite très vivement que vous preniez une part active à la rédaction de « Néon ». Il suffirait d'une très légère transposition de ton pour que les pages que vous m'adressez puissent y trouver place et en constituer un des éléments primordiaux. Il en va, naturellement, de même pour « Supérieur inconnu » si cette revue peut voir le jour. » ["My dear Friend, I very much wish that you would take an active part in the editing of 'Néon'. It would only require a very slight transposition of tone for the pages you send me to find their place there and form one of its primordial elements. The same goes, naturally, for 'Supérieur inconnu' if this magazine can see the light of day."] This latter review, meant to reconcile and unite the conservatives and innovators of surrealism, would only come to light forty-eight years later under the impetus of Sarane Alexandrian. Gaston Puel would indeed join the editorial team of Néon, but would eventually turn away from the surrealists - while maintaining his friendship with Breton - in 1950.