COCTEAU (Jean).

Lot 119
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Estimation :
1000 - 1500 EUR
COCTEAU (Jean).
Orpheus. Tragedy in one act and an interval. Paris, Librairie Stock, Delamain et Boutelleau, 1927. In-12, paperback, untrimmed, cardboard folder and case. Original edition. Orphée was first performed at the Théâtre des Arts in Paris in June 1926, directed by Georges Pitoëff. The play was adapted for the cinema by Cocteau himself in 1950, with Jean Marais in the title role. Signed letter from Cocteau to André Gide: à mon cher André Gide, sans aucune ombre. Jean. Cocteau is alluding to André Gide's criticisms of his prefaces and the "publicity" he gives to his books. The 1920s were a time of literary fireworks for Cocteau, of great Works and great successes [...] Cocteau does not like to let one of his Works run its own course. [...] A "Cocteau publicist" with a promising future thus takes over from the "Cocteau journalist" [...]. Cocteau writes in the newspapers to show himself in his true light, to destroy the rumours, the canards, and to correct the Parisian echoes that put him on stage. The press (re)becomes for him the auxiliary of an explanatory, self-justifying, polemical auctorial communication [...]. Gide was one of those who constantly reproached him for this, criticising in 1919 his defence of Parade in the press, and in 1924 the long "1922 preface" added in volume to the short text of Les Mariés de la tour Eiffel: "I pester against your preface which ties up so short this winged thing which only asks to fly" (Héron et Thérenty, Cocteau journaliste, 2014, pp. 16-17). Cover a bit faded, especially on the spine.
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