Lettres de Rodez
A rare first edition of Lettres de Rodez, issued by G. L. M. in 1946. Written during Artaud’s internment in Rodez, these letters fuse lucidity with torment in a language stretched to its limits. The small-format production embraces austere typography, letting the thought speak without ornament. Printed in very limited numbers, the book is coveted for its pivotal role in Artaud’s post-surrealist itinerary. This copy, mint and unopened, is from the tirage de tête, heightening its bibliophilic appeal. For collectors of the avant-garde, it is a touchstone of radical modern literature.
Quantity
Artaud, Antonin
Lettres de Rodez
1946 | Paris | GLM (Guy Lévis-Mano)
A cornerstone of Artaud’s post-war writing, exceptional in condition and from the tirage de tête.
A rare first edition of Lettres de Rodez, issued by G. L. M. in 1946. Written during Artaud’s internment in Rodez, these letters fuse lucidity with torment in a language stretched to its limits. The small-format production embraces austere typography, letting the thought speak without ornament. Printed in very limited numbers, the book is coveted for its pivotal role in Artaud’s post-surrealist itinerary. This copy, mint and unopened, is from the tirage de tête, heightening its bibliophilic appeal. For collectors of the avant-garde, it is a touchstone of radical modern literature.
€1,600
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 22 numbered copies on Vélin du Marais, after 13 on Vélin d’Arches.
Print Run
22
Copy Number
33
Paper
vélin du Marais
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
The letters span Artaud’s confinement in Rodez, oscillating between indictment, metaphysical inquiry, and poetic eruption. Language and body, illness and creation, and a break with the literary establishment recur. The tone shifts from visionary to cuttingly concrete. The correspondence translates the aesthetics of cruelty into an intimate epistolary rhetoric. As a whole, it is a searing document of recovery, resistance, and formal quest in the wake of Surrealism.
Gracq, Julien
Au château d'Argol
Julien Gracq’s debut novel, issued by José Corti, sets a gothic castle on the Breton coast as the stage for a charged, almost dream-logic encounter between three figures. The prose is musical and image-rich, favouring symbolic landscapes and metaphysical weather. Born near Surrealism yet distinctly independent, the book establishes Gracq’s lucid enchantment from the start. For bibliophiles this is a key title: an early Corti publication, scarce in appealing condition, and the opening note of a major twentieth-century voice. Its limited print-run and initially slow reception add to the sense of discovery. This copy is on publisher’s stock.
Book
€610
Michaux, Henri
Ailleurs
*Ailleurs* is a keystone in Michaux’s imaginary ethnographies—an atlas of inner geographies, issued by NRF in 1948. Miguet’s sober bordeaux morocco binding matches the text’s clarity and restraint. With dry precision and wry humor, Michaux details peoples, rituals, and languages that are both alien and oddly familiar. The airy layout paces attention and thought. This copy belongs to the small head issue on vélin pur fil and is notably fresh. A book that relocates the reader in place—a cartography of the mind.
Book
€1,050
Bousquet, Joë
Traduit du silence. Proses
Traduit du silence. Proses is one of Joë Bousquet’s rare pre-war publications, issued in the poetic series of Les Cahiers du Journal des Poètes. Its title already contains the central paradox of the book: writing as if translated from silence, seclusion and inward intensity. This copy is notable for its deluxe issue on Featherweight fort, numbered with the crowned-heart device, but above all for its signed autograph inscription to Jeanne and James Ducellier. The Ducelliers were among Bousquet’s closest confidants in Carcassonne and belonged to the circle where literature, friendship and surrealism converged. This is therefore not merely an early and refined edition, but a tangible document of a personal and artistic network. The book connects Bousquet’s enclosed room with the broader surrealist constellation of Max Ernst, Paul Éluard, Yves Tanguy and Raymond Roussel.
Book
€250
Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges
Ariane
A remarkable copy of *Ariane*, published in the *Les Cahiers Nouveaux* series, inscribed with a poetic and enigmatic message by Ribemont-Dessaignes to Jacques Matarasso. This deluxe Japan paper edition was elegantly rebound in 1994 by Georges Leroux, in a restrained style that echoes the work’s Dadaist spirit.
Book
€1,100
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