Jean COCTEAU (1889-1963) - Lot 60

Jean COCTEAU (1889-1963) 3 L.A.S., one with drawing, January-September 1961; 1page in-4 each (one on Santo-Sospir letterhead), one envelope. January 27. "Good news or at least half good news/swallow. [...] As it stands, the album was not viable in the sense that its price meant it had to be sold at too high a price for those for whom it was intended. After a thousand and one studies (and I'm guessing secret help from Mme Weisweiller) we were able to establish text and illustration in the style of the N.R.F. collections, with 60 images, which is enormous compared to the 25 to 30 of Hiroshima and the other films. I've selected the best proofs and we're about to get started. As for Testament in Germany, it's a deep mystery. I can't understand why the film can't be set in a country that adores Orpheus. I'm afraid of seeing it as a maneuver by the atrocious Alexander [...] who is a swindler"... Santo-Sospir, in red pen. "Thank you dear Lucien for your beautiful pictures. Of course for Cotignac and vive le calme!" On the back, drawing of a boy licking a can of cotignac, with this comment: "When I was a kid, cotignac was quince jam that we licked off a piece of wooden box, breaking the lid that served as a spoon". Marbella September 12... "Yesterday, in the sublime bullring of Ronda Ordonez offered me his beast. He got the tail, the ears and 2 legs. That tells you what a race it was, at the end of which he killed his beast in front of me, so that he received his montera from my hands, one foot placed on it. [...] I've finished the Requiem. All I have to do now is reread it and see if it wasn't a dream. [...] Should I leave the Requiem intact or move certain stanzas? I'm afraid to touch it because I wonder if mistakes aren't our best." Attached are 2 telegrams from Cocteau (Marbella May 29 and Oct. 13, 1961); and Lucien Clergue's copy of a text by Cocteau for Show magazine, November 1961 (1p. in-4 on Show letterhead): "Lucien Clergue has that cyclops eye that the photographer carries around on his belly and that looks through the keyholes of a world that doesn't always like to let itself be seen". CCC p. 77-78. Lots 24 to 68 are sold by provisional auction with the option of reunion.