Les intellectuels en question - In Le journal des débats N°29

The first edition, published in a small number of copies, of which there were no deluxe copies, of this offprint from Pierre Nora's review, Le Débat.
Precious signed autograph inscription from Maurice Blanchot to his sister "... for you, this little reading and to help you regain courage".
Marguerite Blanchot, renowned organist at Chalon cathedral, remained all her life in the family home, with her mother and aunt. "She would gradually become, for the family, like the memory of origins." Very close to Maurice, she corresponded regularly with the writer who showed her great gratitude for her devotion to their invalid mother. While Blanchot's intense affection for his mother and sister shows through in his dedications, we know almost nothing of their relationships. In the only biographical essay on Blanchot, Christophe Bident reveals however: "Marguerite Blanchot venerated her brother Maurice. Very proud of him, (...) she attached great importance to his political ideas (...). She read extensively (...) They telephoned each other, corresponded. At a distance, they shared the same natural authority, the same concern for discretion." Blanchot indeed sent her numerous works from his library, maintaining with her a continuous intellectual bond. As for Blanchot's passion for his mother, it is in the margins of his work that we discover the most beautiful testimonies: "Perhaps the power of the maternal figure borrows its radiance from the very power of fascination, and one could say that if the Mother exerts this fascinating attraction, it is because appearing when the child lives entirely under the gaze of fascination, she concentrates in herself all the powers of enchantment". Cultivating absolute discretion, Blanchot pushed the art of self-effacement even into his manuscript dedications, generally succinct and written almost systematically on cards attached to the rare works he offered to his close friends. In contrast, in these precious inscriptions to his mother and sister, Blanchot reveals himself in all his fragility and, in the intimacy of this correspondence, casts a personal glance on his work hitherto unknown.
A small tear at the head of the spine.