CENDRARS Blaise (1887-1961)

Lot 96
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Estimation :
5000 - 6000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 6 500EUR
CENDRARS Blaise (1887-1961)
17 L.A.S. "Blaise Cendrars", [1918], to Claude AUTANT-LARA; 20 pages in-4 or in-8, 3 with Éditions de la Sirène letterhead, one address (small slots for a few letters). Beautiful correspondence about the literary and artistic review Aujourd'hui que veut fonder le jeune Claude Autant-Lara. "DUFY and LÉGER are painters, the first one an illustrator, the second one from the family of La Fresnaye. They are talented people. [...] You can count on me. You know that I haven't contributed to any magazine since 1914! If I give you all my support, it's because I know you're young and full of enthusiasm. Let's go! So"... He is going to send him poems and gives him the addresses of Roger de LA FRESNAYE, Fernand LÉGER and Raoul DUFY; "KISLING writes to me that he agrees to collaborate. STRAWINSKY will write to you. I believe that with this beautiful team you will beat all the records of modern beauty". He then proposes "either to write you an article on the literary movement in Germany during the War; or to translate for you a very beautiful poem entitled das Himmlische Licht, the celestial light. It is therefore by no means a question of apologizing for German art, which does not exist and has never existed in my eyes"; he is of the opinion of Bakst: "The Germans never had art but they had poets and the poem that I propose to translate for you is of the Tieck-Novalis lineage"... He discusses the title to be given to the review: "Today is better. It is now necessary to keep it (maintain) on the page"... BERNOUARD can find paper. Jules ROMAINS has left Nice : "But there is still a former collaborator of the Soirées de Paris that we did not think of - ROCH GREY - who sometimes has a nice talent"... He sends "an article on Russian musicians. Although printed, it is unpublished, never having appeared anywhere"; he wants to correct the proofs personally... He mentions an incident with COCTEAU: "What you tell me about Cocteau and the others does not surprise me. They're doing this just when I refused to attend an Art et Liberté matinee. They have no character"... He is astonished at the noise made by this informer: "Jean - I don't understand anything. SATIE no more excusable. I am poorer than him. Wait for Mr Strawinsky there too - there must be some mish-mash"... Cendrars gets angry: "Pleasant or unpleasant my last proposal deserved an answer, young man"... On December 2, 1918, he expresses his disappointment: "My intention lately was to give you nothing. You have not lived up to what I expected from you", but he gave in to some friends: "You can therefore reprint in your first issue my prose Profond Aujourd'hui. I'm giving you something that's already been published because you're putting together an album of already known values and you're not bringing something really new into your collaboration as you'd led me to believe. If Prof. Today doesn't suit you, I have nothing else for you""
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