COCTEAU (Jean) : new epistles. Paris, Editions... Lot 194

COCTEAU (Jean) : new epistles. Paris, Editions du Monde illustré, 1945-1946. One volume. 20,5 by 27 cm. Port-folio with flaps in blue cardboard, cover decorated by Jean COCTEAU. Small tear on the back of one flap, otherwise very good condition. 47 facsimiles of autograph letters, most of them with their typographical transcription on serpente, letters written between 1945 and 1946. There are Louis JOUVET, Julien BENDA, Fernand LEGER (with a drawing), Jean COCTEAU, Le CORBUSIER, Pablo CASALS, Georges BERNANOS, Richard WRIGHT, Paul COLIN, Jean PAULHAN, Victoria OCAMPO, etc. A 48th facsimile is a duplicate. Our copy includes letters 1 to 47, minus letters 4, 22, 24, 25. But we have 3 unnumbered letters. And two different letters are N°6 (Charles VILDRAC and Dorothy THOMPSON) These errors fill in the gaps. Most copies have 40 or 42 facsimiles, sometimes with 3 additional letters. Ours has 47. COCTEAU seems to have been the initiator of this collection, whose philosophy he describes in his letter, and on the cover of the port-folio: Write. Keep the letters. Read them again. Let them work in the shadow.