CHAR René (1907-1988). Lot n° 29

50 L.A.S. "René Char" or "R. Char" and an autograph POEM, plus a dedicated photograph, 1949- 1976, to Marianne OSWALD; 77 pages various sizes (some defects; the poem is torn). Friendly correspondence with the teller. [Marianne OSWALD (1901-1985), singer and actress, friend of the poets, was a remarkable teller; she collaborated in his radio or television programs devoted to poetry]. January 11, 1950. He rejoiced in the success of Marianne in Germany. In anticipation of a radio broadcast, he gives some biographical elements: "I was born in 1907 in L'Isle-sur-Sorgue, Vaucluse. I was a pain in the ass until I was 20 years old, very badly presented to the world as a rebellious and often punished high school student. Then I "earned" my living selling chicory and whisky in Marseille (I was 18!), crossed the Mediterranean and lived in Tunisia. When I came back, I took care of the land that I like and of building materials that I like less. So much for the stomach. Under the Nazis, the maquis, then at the Interallied Staff in Algiers and finally the landing. I killed some bastards out of military and civic necessity in 1940-44. I don't brag about it, there are too many survivors who prolong them and surpass them in filth. Now I am against the death penalty, which does not help anything"... He gives his agreement for a "project of an evening in Cologne concerning the reading of my poems, dedicated to the friendship of Albert CAMUS (Feuillets d'Hypnos is dedicated to him). It is especially necessary to speak about Albert and the terrible emptiness that his disappearance caused. It is up to friendship to fill this void"... But he refuses to appear in a television program: "alas! the prospect of a film is odious (even with you) that I have sworn my great gods never to lend myself to it. You will not be offended, I know, by my reserve - towards me. You will understand it, my friend. Read my poems, they are written for that, but don't ask me to show myself, nor to display my existence, poetic or not, on a television screen"... He gives some names of actors "to say, and not declaim poems", of which Pierre Vaneck; he himself recorded a disc "where I say poems"... He writes for her the poem Élisabeth petite fille: "J'ai vu tes yeux bleus de vingt jours/Donner un frison clair aux feuilles", with a variant (1 p. in-4). A photograph taken in L'Isle sur Sorgue representing René Char is dedicated: "to Marianne his close friend R.C. 1960".