André Breton & Jean Paulhan, 1918 - 1962
André BretonJean PaulhanAn astonishing correspondence is the one exchanged, for more than forty years, by André Breton and Jean Paulhan: we discover the deep intellectual complicity which linked the leader of surrealism to the director of the NRF and the first sparks of the surrealist adventure, in which Paulhan took full part in its beginnings, then the relationships, made of desires and tensions, between the avant-garde and the institution. These letters finally reveal the intimacy of a relationship which seeks, to the end, the formula of a friendship so desired by Breton, between revolutionary ideal and need for recognition.
We thus witness the continuation of this “distant” friendship, crossed by many great figures of letters and the arts. A whole history of modernity is being written, and which allows us to better read the thoughts of the two authors, each illuminated in a new light. And if their friendship never managed to flourish, at least these two minds met in the same ardent quest for the mysteries of thought - mysteries of the unconscious for one, of expression for the other.
Clarisse Barthélemy
Chronicle by Christian Hordé December 2, 2021 in Sitaudis
Publisher : Gallimard