L'Université libre, série mensuelle N°2

L'Université libre, série mensuelle n° 2


no publisher | [Paris] February | 1942 | 22 x 28 cm | one leaf
First edition, clandestinely printed, of this Parisian Resistance journal, only two issues of which appeared in September/October 1941 and February 1942.
Small marginal tears, not serious, two folds as originally folded.
hough taking the name of the «L'Université libre» Resistance group of intellectuals created by Georges Politzer, Jacques Decour, Paul Langevin and Jacques Solomon, this «monthly review» more than likely was not the work of this group. The 103 issues of Politzer's newspaper were roneotyped and not, like the present item, printed on a proper press.
In her Catalogue des périodiques clandestins: 1939-1945, Renée Roux-Fouillet distinguishes the two publications. She also mentions a third review of the same title that appeared from 1944 on in the Southern Zone. Even in the Bibliothèque Nationale's heavily annotated copy, there is no reference to the authors or to the origin of this Université libre, série mensuelle, of which we are aware only of the two issues, four months apart.
his clandestine review was not published in the Unoccupied Zone. The terrible quality of the typography, the tiny and cramped lettering, as well as it being set on a single leaf are all elements that highlight the modesty of available means and the need to save paper that were typical of Occupied France. The numerous Resistance papers of Unoccupied France are made up of at least two leaves, the typography is much more spaced out, and the page layout far more traditional. In addition, this review refers with a great deal of precision to events that impacted the capital and its suburbs, like for instance the «massacre of the statues» in Paris and the German soldiers' typhus: «by evacuating their contagious sick to Paris, the Germans are going to infect the population of the city, which they are denying hospital access, having already robbed them of medicine and food.» Last but not least, the ephemeral nature of this periodical despite the regularity proclaimed on it and the extreme rarity of copies are the obvious signs of a small-scale, dangerous act of publishing.
In all likelihood, this Université libre is also the work of professors, very focused on art and culture (the article «Hitler's culture: still in its infancy» gives a detailed comparison of French and German writers and artists). The first issue refers to the back to school period, while this copy opens with a homage to Paul Langevin and finishes on an unfulfilled promise of a third issue dedicated to the educational reforms.
here is no other indication that would allow us to place more precisely this act of Parisian intellectual resistance, and the lack of a third issue leads one to suspect the worst.
But for their last hurrah against Nazi terror, these anonymous heroes did manage a masterstroke: in homage to Gabriel Péri and Fernand Holweck, shot on the 15th and 24th December respectively, they were able to print three triple tricolor bands. This use of color, which required technical means available to very few clandestine journals and an explicit reference to the tricolor scarf of the representatives of the French state, is in itself a powerful act of resistance and a thumbing of the nose at the enemy, at the same time as (in February) the founders of the first Université libre, Georges Politzer, Jacques Decour and Jacques Solomon, were arrested, tortured and – in May 1942 – shot.
An extremely rare copy of one of the only two issues of this clandestine journal made by intellectuals and members of the Resistance, whose identity remains unknown to this day.
We have found no copies in public libraries, except the BNF and the French National Archives.

Paul éLUARD, under the pseudonym of Jean DU HAUT
Les Sept Poèmes d'amour en guerre
[Seven Poems of Love in Wartime]

Bibliothèque française | [Saint-Flour] | [1943] | 10.5 x 13.5 cm | one sheet folded over
The first edition, printed clandestinely, of which there wereno grand papier (deluxe) copies.
A good and rare copy.