Carte manuscrite inédite, signée et illustrée d'une reproduction d'un dessin de PAB adressée à son ami le libraire montpelliérain Pierre Clerc lui présentant ses voeux pour l'année 1987

Autograph card signed by Pierre-André Benoit (8 lines in black ink written from his château at Rivières-de-Theyrargues in the Gard which he has occupied since 1970) addressed to bookseller Pierre Clerc, to whom he presents his wishes for 1984.
The card is illustrated on the recto with a reproduction of a drawing by PAB.
PAB is exhausted by the past year: "... j'ai besoin cet hiver de me reposer puis ce sera encore l'agitation..." ["I need to rest this winter then it will be agitation again..."] and is considering leaving his retreat at Rivières-de-Theyrargues: "dans un an au plus un an 1/2 je laisserai Rivières et me fixerai à Alès..." ["in a year at most a year and a half I will leave Rivières and settle in Alès..."]
He will also dispose of his books and his library: "... tout partira ou au musée-bibliothèque ou chez les libraires..." ["everything will go either to the museum-library or to booksellers..."]
This is why he invites his bookseller friend to come see him one last time at his château.
Poet, painter, engraver, Pierre-André Benoit or P.A.B. was above all a typographer and printer who produced more than 400 illustrated works bringing together the greatest post-war poets with the most talented painters of the second half of the 20th century.
P.A.B.'s productions were first made on a small press installed in his apartment in Alès. They would bring together his poet friends René Char, André Breton, Paul Éluard, Paul Claudel, Erik Satie, Tristan Tzara and his painter friends Joan Miró, Georges Braque, Jean Dubuffet, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso. In 1949, he began using celluloid engraving which allowed him to make the prints himself and produce the books entirely. From his modern château at Rivières-de-Theyrargues, in the Gard, he would end up illustrating his works himself while continuing to work with his faithful friends Camille Bryen and Pierre Alechinsky.