COCTEAU JEAN (1889-1963). Lot n° 41

Autograph poem, Homage to Manolete, Barcelona 11-14 July 1953; 9 pages infol. (31,5 x 21,5 cm). Beautiful set of five successive versions of this great poem in homage to Manolete, from the first draft to the final reworking. Let us recall that the Spanish matador Manuel MAnolete was killed during a bullfight in 1947. The last version still has two or three variants with the text published in Clair-obscur (1954). The poem has 7 quatrains. The first draft of the poem was started in pencil and then continued in ballpoint pen, with numerous crossings out and corrections, with about ten lines crossed out to draft the last stanza (2 ff.). Then comes a first formatting, in ballpoint pen, again much corrected and crossed out (1 f.). Then there is a clean-up, well calligraphed, with the title L'Hommage à Manolete, dated "Barcelone 11 juillet 1953", but again crossed out and corrected; at the top Cocteau has noted "presque au point" (1 f.). The fourth version is drawn up on a carbon copy of a new clean-up, signed and dated "Barcelona 14 July 1953"; Cocteau has made new corrections in pencil and blue ballpoint pen; then on two additional sheets of paper, he has drawn up two additional stanzas in pencil (5 and 6), with numerous drafts crossed out and corrected (1+2 ff .). The final version is a carbon copy of the complete poem, with some corrections in ballpoint pen (2 ff .). "Other he was. Other was his title of nobility. Mercury had provided his feet with wings. To the boxes With cigars the same, of medallic gold, the mass Sanctified the pure crime of his right hand "...