Misère de la poésie
Misery of Poetry, first edition.
Beautiful copy, one of the few Hors commerce justified copies, preserved in its original wrappers, as published.
The Paul Eluard copy, with a handwritten dedication by Breton.
Octavo, 31 pp., paperback as issued.
232 x 147 mm.
Breton, André. Misery of Poetry.
Paris, Éditions Surréalistes, 1932.
First edition.
Copy justified H.C. with an inscription by Breton to his friend Paul Eluard.
“Misery of Poetry is a text that far surpasses the circumstances of its publication. If the raison d'être […] of the tract The Aragon Affair was the defense of Aragon for the publication of his poem ‘Front Rouge,’ the criticisms and comments, favorable or not, prompted by this tract and this campaign, would lead Breton to define with great rigor the surrealist position regarding the relationship between lyrical expression and society. Thus, naturally, he would move from —The Aragon Affair— in a somewhat opportunist manner—to a theoretical analysis of Misery of Poetry, which thus appears as a preface to Communicating Vessels (1932) and also to Political Position of Surrealism (1935). The very importance of this text dissuades us from trying to reduce it to its main lines, which would betray it: let the reader return to the text, especially as this is certainly Breton’s most unknown work.” (José Pierre, Surrealist Tracts and Collective Declarations, vol.1, 1922-1939).
The Paul Eluard copy with an inscription by Breton.
These two were brothers before choosing—one Trotsky, the other Stalin—and opposed each other on the very meaning of the revolution to be waged.
“It all began in the spring of 1919, during which Breton sought to contact Éluard, whom Paulhan had already identified and recruited for the brand new review *Littérature*. Thus, he invited him to the reading of *Anicet* by Aragon, at the Hôtel des Grands Hommes, place du Panthéon, where he had taken up residence.” They met again at the end of May, as hecklers at the Claudel matinee organized by Adrienne Monnier at the Théâtre du Gymnase. Éluard would later write one of the most irreverent notes about this event in *Littérature*. For his part, Breton contributed several texts to the small review *Proverbe*, founded by Éluard.
A relationship of which both would, in hindsight, grasp the exceptional nature. “I believed, as in no other, in your friendship, in your deep understanding of what we wanted,” Breton wrote to Eluard in March 1936. From that year, the revolutionary commitments dictated at first by the same uncompromising passion gradually led them towards opposing choices. Following a youthful aspiration to human fraternity, Eluard would seek its embodiment in the Communist Party, which he joined during the war, while Breton’s eyes were fully opened at the time of the first Moscow Trial.
Beautiful copy, one of a few hors commerce copies justified, preserved in original wrappers as issued.
