Max JACOB. 2 L.A.S. and an autograph manuscript, 1918-1922, - Lot 454

Max JACOB. 2 L.A.S. and an autograph manuscript, 1918-1922, to Robert de La Vaissière; 1page in-12 with address on back (letter-card), and 2pages small in-4 with envelope. 17 rue Gabrielle [July 24, 1918]. Thanks him for his "charming echo" of Le Cornet à dés: "It was certainly worth the poems that have neither the happy turn, nor the grace, nor the finesse. But what the hell! You think I'm so intelligent, you're scaring me! I'm going to try and become one"... Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire November 3, 1922. "You'll find my verses in Le Laboratoire central, at Le Sans Pareil [...] We'll give you a copy if you come on my behalf, with the motive of good publicity". He will find Œuvres burlesques et mystiques de Frère Matorel at Kahnweiler or the Bibliothèque Nationale. There's more verse in La Défense de Tartuffe, 12 rue de l'Odéon. "I don't think any of these publishers will object to reproduction". He encloses his biography... Biography. Autobiographical note: "I was born in Quimper on July 11, 1876, to well-to-do shopkeepers. I did brilliant studies [...] I entered the École Coloniale in 1894. From which I resigned to take up painting. I was mainly an art critic. These were my first literary attempts. I was told that I wrote badly; I gave up everything to learn to write: I then lived a life of misery, doing all kinds of jobs [...] I got to know poets thanks to Picasso, whose friendship has been precious to me all my life, and to Apollinaire. I led the life of a bohemian or poor dandy until 1909, when a divine apparition made me think of my conversion: it took place in 1915 and everything changed. Today I've been living in the country between two priests for eighteen months. I work and pray all day and ignore worldly life"...