Les Trois solitaires. Œuvres posthumes nouvelles et poèmes inédits
Les Trois solitaires appeared two years after Robert Desnos’s death and belongs to the moving post-war publications that gathered his voice anew. The volume contains new posthumous works and unpublished poems, making it not only a literary publication but also an act of remembrance. Yvette Alde’s lithographs provide an intimate visual counterpoint, not merely illustrative but responsive to the dream, solitude, and lyrical tension of Desnos’s poetry. The carefully produced loose-sheet quarto format, with chemise and slipcase, places the book firmly within the French tradition of the artist’s book. At the same time, the 1947 publication date gives it the historical gravity of a literary world still measuring the losses of war and deportation. For the collector, it is a refined conjunction of posthumous poetry, original lithography, and understated bibliophily.
Quantity
Desnos, Robert
Alde, Yvette
Les Trois solitaires. Œuvres posthumes nouvelles et poèmes inédits
1947 | Paris | Les 13 Épis
A refined posthumous first edition in which Desnos’s poetry and Alde’s lithographs meet in a restrained post-war artist’s book. The limited edition, Lafuma paper, and complete presentation with chemise and slipcase make this copy especially appealing. The book is at once a literary document, an homage, and a collector’s object.
Les Trois solitaires appeared two years after Robert Desnos’s death and belongs to the moving post-war publications that gathered his voice anew. The volume contains new posthumous works and unpublished poems, making it not only a literary publication but also an act of remembrance. Yvette Alde’s lithographs provide an intimate visual counterpoint, not merely illustrative but responsive to the dream, solitude, and lyrical tension of Desnos’s poetry. The carefully produced loose-sheet quarto format, with chemise and slipcase, places the book firmly within the French tradition of the artist’s book. At the same time, the 1947 publication date gives it the historical gravity of a literary world still measuring the losses of war and deportation. For the collector, it is a refined conjunction of posthumous poetry, original lithography, and understated bibliophily.
€300
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-4 (Quarto) approx. 25 × 32 cm
Edition Particulars
Copy on Lafuma paper, one of 325 numbered copies.
Print Run
325
Copy Number
No. 257
Paper
papier Lafuma
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
The volume brings together posthumous texts and unpublished poems by Robert Desnos. It is not organized around a continuous narrative, but around a sequence of lyrical voices in which solitude, desire, memory, and dream logic alternate. The title suggests three figures or states of solitude, readable as variations on inner isolation and poetic presence. Desnos’s language moves between clear song, associative leap, and surrealist echo, while often retaining a direct emotional core. Yvette Alde’s five lithographs accompany the poems as images of atmosphere and tension. In the context of 1947, the volume inevitably acquires an elegiac tone: it reads as both continuation and memorial to a poet who did not survive the war.
Michaux, Henri · Bettencourt, Pierre
Arriver à se réveiller
A rare first edition of Arriver à se réveiller, written by Henri Michaux in the tremulous post-war years. The text unfolds as an inward journey toward lucidity, where sleep and waking mirror each other. Printed and published by Pierre Bettencourt in his own workshop, the edition’s small run preserves the work’s intimacy. The title-page vignette, a linocut by Bettencourt, sets a spare, rhythmic visual key that amplifies Michaux’s vigilant, vulnerable tone. This copy is handsomely bound in brown morocco with balsa boards by Miguet, a tactile nod to lightness under tension. For bibliophiles, it is an exemplary union of poetry, craft, and experiment. The volume embodies the independence of the post-war small press and Michaux’s radical sensitivity.
Illustrated Book
€680
Éluard, Paul
Au rendez-vous allemand
Au rendez-vous allemand is one of the emblematic collections of Éluard’s wartime poetry. The book appeared in 1944 from Les Éditions de Minuit, the publishing house that, under the Occupation, became a moral landmark of the French literary Resistance. The volume gathers poems in which love, mourning, revolt and hope appear not as abstractions but as immediate necessities under German rule. The frontispiece, a portrait of the poet after Picasso, gives the book a powerful artistic signature: two voices of modern France, poet and artist, stand here in the same struggle. This is an ordinary, unnumbered copy, but signed by Éluard on the first page. That signature makes the book more than a Resistance document: it becomes a tangible witness to literary presence in a historically charged year. For the collector, it unites the clandestine aura of Minuit, Picasso’s name and Éluard’s own hand.
Illustrated Book
€350
Derain, André
Amis & Amille. Mystère du XIVe siècle.
This sumptuously bound book brings a medieval mystery to life through a rare collaboration between ancient literature and modern illustration. The geometric box design on garnet morocco provides striking contrast. André Derain’s 22 color lithographs – including one double and three full-page – enhance the narrative with expressive visual force. Printed on Rives vellum in an edition of 180 numbered copies, this copy (No. 72) was made for Baroness Vaxelaire and includes a suite on fine Japanese paper. The binding by Lucie Weill exemplifies artisanal excellence. A harmonious blend of narrative tradition and graphic daring.
Illustrated Book
€1,460
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