Chantiers

First edition of each of the 9 issues of this important literary magazine published in Carcassonne by Joë Bousquet and René Nelli.

Contributions by Joë Bousquet, André Cayatte, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Henri Féraud, Benjamin Fondane, Ferdinand Alquié, Pierre and Jean Audard, André Gaillard, Abel Gance, Marcel Jouhandeau, Michel Leiris, Georges Malkine, René Nelli, Claude-André Puget, Zdenko Reich, André de Richaud, Carlo Suarès, Gilbert Trolliet, André Gaillard, among others...

A few minor, inconsequential tears to the foot of the spine on some issues, a few spines slightly sunned; a handsome set.

A rare complete set of the literary and poetic periodical Chantiers, which contributed to the emergence of a Mediterranean surrealism under the impetus of Joë Bousquet.

The fifth issue of the review contains the first edition of Bousquet's La Fiancée du vent, signed Jean-Flour Montestruc, found under two different covers: one bearing the title of the review and the issue number, the other titled simply "La Fiancée du vent," as is the case in our copy.

René Nelli, its editor, was a privileged witness to this short-lived publication:

"Bousquet's ideas on love and poetry are faithfully reflected during this period in the journal Chantiers, which charts their development. The first issue (January 1928) opens with a poem by François-Paul Alibert, accompanied by a photograph of a Polynesian idol. It contains an article on Aux fontaines du désir by Montherlant, but also another, more significant one, on Nadja by André Breton. As the journal progressed, Surrealism assumed an increasingly prominent place in its pages. In 1928 it published André Gaillard's "Clé des champs", and later that same year (No. 4), several magnificent poems by Paul Éluard. The diversity of the tendencies represented—the neo-classicism of François-Paul Alibert and the still pervasive influence of Paul Valéry, the magical idealism of Novalis, ever present ("Novalis", by Claude Estève, 1929, No. 7), and the philosophical humanism of Ferdinand Alquié (so full of anguish, yet already so lucid in "Notes sur le désir") reflects the conflicting influences acting upon Bousquet at the time, although he was increasingly drawn to André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Surrealist painters. Yet the influence of Carlo Suarès ("Des traîtres et des jeunes filles devenues très vieilles", 1929, No. 7) already served to temper that of Surrealism, reviving in Bousquet an idealist gnosis founded upon the negation of the self..." (René Nelli, Joë Bousquet, sa vie et son oeuvre). 

Throughout the review, one also finds important texts by Bousquet:

"Retour" (Chantiers, Nos. 1, 2, and 3) takes up the themes of Paroles du lépreux sans nom, directing them more decisively toward the realm of fate. Its central concern is the rediscovery of a past that still remains to be lived, and the reconstruction of existence beyond time, founded upon the hope embodied in love and the reality embodied in woman. This would later become the substance of Il ne fait pas assez noir." (Nelli, ibid.)

Chantiers also includes fine poems by Éluard: "Je te l'ai dit pour l'arbre de la mer", "Ses yeux sont des tours de lumière", "Porte comprise" (1928, nos. 4 and 6).

A precious literary journal borne out of Bousquet's intellectual and poetic exuberance, surrounded by numerous contributors and notable figures of Carcassonne's literary world: Claude Estève, the "Socate languedocien" which gave the journal its title Chantiers, and the philosopher Ferdinand Alquié.