Letters from Jean Paulhan to Gabriel Bounoure

(See the letters from Gabriel Bounoure to Jean Paulhan on the Eman website)

January 21, 1929

My dear friend,

Thank you for letting me free. I therefore sent to print, on the one hand the passage which begins with: "Suarès becoming a poet in the kingdom of Ashikaga, it is not through mystification..." and ends with: "The beauty of style... finds itself reduced to a modesty full of intoxication which... seems to recreate the most tenuous moments of becoming"; on the other hand the passage which begins: "We must therefore in Suarès consider the mask as true" and ends with the end of your study. It seems to me that their meeting forms a perfect whole. But tell me your feelings on this quite frankly.
Thus reduced, your note will undoubtedly remain the longest that the nrf has ever published. This is not a criticism: just remember that it will earn me reproaches from all those of our collaborators whom I firmly request, whatever in their eyes the importance of the work they are dealing with, not to exceed two or three pages. I will answer them: "It's about Suarès - but a Suarès, they will say, accidental, about a book that no one has seen - if no one has seen it, that's a good reason to talk about it at greater length; read Bounoure: he only talks about an essential Suarès." So I will win (and how unpleasant all these questions are!), but I will have to win.

When will you send me your Fargue? (and will you kindly try, on the one hand, not to exceed twelve pages; on the other hand, to "treat" it as an article, rather than as a note.) I am extremely impatient; I'm not the only one.
And the other notes? Jouve, Dalby, Guy Lavaud, Guéguen, Chabaneix (who has just won the Moréas prize), Salmon — among whom Salmon and Jouve at least seem quite important to me. Please don't delay in sending them to us.
I hope to finally obtain the additional pages that I requested, and to be able to transform your notes into a chronicle. But ultimately, nothing is less certain.
Perhaps you could also think, for the beginning of 1930, of an article on Suarès.
I'm thinking of composing a tribute number to Claudel. In that case, couldn't I count on an article from you of six to eight pages? I will tell you about it again.
What did you think of Opales, and wouldn't you like to talk about it in the nrf?

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Will you never make me read anything from you, only notes.
— it would be necessary for me to know your feelings about my next notebook, where I try, with regard to Valéry, to establish what is unfair, and exactly what is false, about the idea of ​​forger applied to a writer (for example, for poets, that of versifier, etc.). Forgive me for asking this. I cannot tell you to what extent what you wrote to me about Default helps and strengthens me.

— Port-Cros, we found it twenty days ago, covered in snow. The natives, surprised, pretended to believe that it was manna and sprinkled it, before tasting it, with powdered sugar (but one must be wary of southern tricks). The trees seemed to reveal so much daylight between their branches that we thought we could no longer see the mountain. It was too white a day.

— Also tell me what you think of Schwab's Nemrod.

I send you many wishes, and my friendship,

Should we give you some secret news. Jouhandeau is very much in love with the dancer Caryathis, and very much loved by her.

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August 3 [1929]

Dear friend,

I don't dare tell you about the great pleasure Supervielle and I would have in seeing you come to Port-Cros before the end of September. However, is this completely impossible? I certainly think that you are not returning to France to see the Mediterranean: we would hide it from you, and, from the lookout at least, one feels familiar with the coast of the Maures (or rather their forests) and the Alps. Finally, on an island, the sea opposes itself, the winds cross, we live in fresh and changing air.
Thank you for your big beautiful letters.

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I would be very keen to have a note from you on Lochac. I could not refuse to publish his poems at Larbaud's enthusiasm, reasons, and insistence. But I would like you, for your part, to explain yourself clearly (and I feel, I believe, much closer to you than to him).
As for Prévost's Romains, I have read it little. I have never managed to be touched by Romans, who seems to me intelligent and infinitely estimable, but whom I do not "tolerate".
Perhaps you liked Michaux's Ecuador, Grenier's Mouloud. I also believe that Marc Bernard will be someone. And the nrf will give a “family history” of Limbour, which seems wonderful to me.
Please give me notes soon: the Paradis of Jouve, the Carreaux of Salmon, the Lochac, so many others...
Our committee judged Hoppenot's poem very harshly. Hoppenot, to whom I communicated this judgment, judged it very poorly in his turn: he wrote to me that the nrf cannot refuse a work “that it requested”. Please tell me, then, whether you have requested or received Return in any way which would imply its publication. And, of course, I will stick to your decision on this point.
Jules Supervielle has not received the poems you tell me about at the end of your last letter.
I am impatiently awaiting your Valéry.

*     *     *

Think a little about the nrf, of which you are the poetic director, during your vacation. Would Suarès have nothing to give us? You will meet him I think.
But above all, that we can see each other! I will be in Port-Cros until around September 21, then in Paris. And you ?

I send you great regards,
Jean Paulhan

I will wait for your note on Opales;
your note also on the Black Bird in the Rising Sun.

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November 26 [1929]

Dear friend,

Some poets whom your Chabaneix has not discouraged are impatiently waiting for you to speak about them. They are, in order of impatience, Castagnou (whose letter is attached), Jouve, Neveux, Mélot du Dy. And I would also like to have a Claudel (of whatever length you like) then a Lochac.
Don't forget the nrf. Your Salmon appears on December 1st. For the Desnos (which you sent me more than a year after the publication of the book) won't you want to wait another two or three months? Desnos' poems will be collected in volume and you could add a few words about them.
I will talk to you again about the Valéry (Here is frankly what bothers me: P.V. marked the Carnet where I criticized him with such pain, or such bad humor that I fear anything that would appear, on the part of the nrf, to be a sort of resentment). But would you agree if I made a few cuts? And forgive me.
I am affectionately yours. Give me news of your health. And excuse me for sending you this typewritten letter.

[handwritten:]

Jean Grenier, who is an associate, former student and professor of the School of Florence, would like to be appointed to Beirut. Is this possible, and what should he do?
Great trip to Béarn. Who would doubt the sincerity of Jouhandeau, since he carries around the statue of vice with him. We were at Gide's the other evening: reading an unpublished work by Sade (it's the first version of Justine, which seems admirable to me). Caryathis maintained an admirable fixity throughout the evening.

Will you never make me read anything but reviews of you? But above all, tell me if you are completely cured.

I am yours affectionately,

Are there no books you wanted? I hesitate to send you all the books that the editions publish, there are too many, and too uneven. But you should attach a small list to each of your letters.

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Monday 7 [January 1930?]

Dear friend,

Here we are back in Paris after three days spent, in the company of Julio, in the Balearic Islands, where we saw fields of windmills and forests of prickly pears, all in a light so clear and harsh that it gave the slightest fig tree the appearance of an event. We also saw a singular man, Ramaugé, who transformed a mountain into a monumental staircase, which he purchased. He is a painter, and we can fear that he will one day cover his staircase with frescoes. But we came before the frescoes, and the staircase was quite moving.

Won't you come to Paris soon? It is undoubtedly pleasant to know you near us, in a sort of large suburb; but it is a pleasure of which we will quickly tire.

As for Port-Cros, it already seems far away. You would have loved the wildness, the sky, the silence. I think you will like them one day, when you have given up abusing the Mediterranean.

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Please send me soon enough so that I can give them in the next nrf, either your note on Jouve, or that on Claudel. (I mean before October 12). To give the Max Jacob, I am only waiting for a new book by Max. As for Valéry...
since you kindly suggested it to me yourself, give me a few more weeks, please; I hesitate a little before the definitive break of P.V. with the nrf (journal and editions) which would follow - and the first effect of which would obviously be a resignation which I could not fail to propose. These are obviously rather weak reasons. But you yourself invite me to examine them. Perhaps I could suggest one or two deletions, some cuts... Tell me what you think.

I also send you the great joy of Aragon. And the brief notes you promised me?

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Thank you for your letter, and for the story of this extraordinary visit by Jouhandeau. I will write to you better in a few days. But don't delay in coming to see us, and be sure of my lively friendship,

To tell the truth, I am not yet very sensitive to the poems of Georges Shéhadé. But I'll get back to it.

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Friday [October 1931?]

Dear friend,

Here is a word from Gabriel Marcel. But people never stop talking to me about your Claudel.

Here are also Eluard's latest poems. (maybe you didn't receive them). Why does Eluard not become the great poet he should have been? There is a lot to think about on this.
It rains and even, on whim, it snows. I had lunch yesterday with Jules Supervielle. Why weren't you there? A mysterious note from Mr. J. gives me to understand that he has separated “forever” from Caryathis. (please let this be between us). Don't forget the nrf; above all, don't forget me,

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29.XII.1952

Very dear friend,

I really don't like this thirteenth month of the year, which is busy and quite humid. But it is coming to an end. And really we can expect all sorts of good things in the months that follow. Accept, with my friendship, my warm wishes.

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So the nrf reappeared. This makes an issue (in my opinion) a little too massive, with too many big names. Yours is not, and I am unhappy about it.
You will receive it. What will it be? It is born in the middle of slightly ridiculous conflicts. Will it be Right or Left? It seems to me that these are words without much meaning. It does not seem so to Malraux (among others) who telephones Arland five times a day to ensure that Montherlant, of all the summary, is the only "collaborator" and threaten us, if not, 1/ to withdraw his article; 2/ some parliamentary questions.
What can I not say: "But we have G.B., this dangerous rebel who had to be chased to Egypt..." I miss the pages you promised me. Send them to me soon, please. Think also of the greatness of Marcel, of Char, of whomever you wish.
Julio has just left us to go to the area around Tours. Marcel J. believes himself — not entirely without reason — abandoned, disdained by Robert. He is strangely desperate.

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Why can't I give lectures? I will try to rush towards you. (But would the moment be right? Give me some news, some news from you.) I have kept great memories of our last hours at St Germain des Prés.

to you with friendship,

Little invention in new toys. There is, however, a horse (ridden by a rider) which gallops, and at a certain moment seems close to flying away. It does not fly away, but falls upside down on itself.

Should we ask Shéhadé for poems? You will answer yes, I think.