Elsa TRIOLET / Signed Autograph Letter / Aragon / Buñuel / Breton / Surrealism

  

Signed autograph letter "Elsa" to Georgik [Georges Sadoul] Moscow, July 2nd [1930 added in another hand, but actually 1932], 3 pages. Large in-4°, in blue ink. Traces of folds, discreet tape repairs, small gaps (see scans). Long letter from Elsa Triolet sent from Moscow, during her trip to Russia with Aragon.

After a lengthy description of her birthplace, the writer alludes, not without bitterness, to the break between her partner and the surrealist group, which occurred three months earlier. "Dear Georgik, The weather is very beautiful, very hot with big thunderstorms. We live in a large room, a dining room with a carved buffet, torn tulle curtains, a few consoles, and two iron beds. There is now plenty of soap and everyone is very clean, which is nice because the trams are as crowded as they were in your time.

Moscow has become much more beautiful, astonishing how it has changed, and it's summer - the trees are green and the people are brown, sunburned like in the countryside. Bands of half-naked children wear bathing shorts. In our courtyard, impressed by our arrival, they play at welcoming the foreigner and make fun of my leather hat because it looks like a football. It's the same courtyard with benches and trees and full of lovers.

They are all sixteen years old. People go to bed very late in this country, people come to your house calmly at midnight, trams run until 2 a. The subway is being built very close to us, it's a reality. We are leaving for Leningrad [Saint Petersburg] in two days. There is talk of a long trip later.

Maybe to the Ural [Triolet and Aragon will make this trip to the Ural in September 1932] with a brigade (Bersena Yarrenski che), or simply to Lili's, without a brigade. Aragon wrote to Buñuel about B. This is the trend of the moment: buying everything that can be bought. But no one has any doubt about the character's venality. With that, we must continue to attack "Monde" [cultural and political magazine founded by Henri Barbusse], without attacking it, while attacking it!!

Finally, the revolution has not yet been written, it has been entrusted to Yarensky, to whom a collaborator has been given to combat the sectarianism of Y-Y. It is useless to discuss, decisions are made in advance and will only change with changes in the political situation. I have not read the surrealist manifesto [Second Manifesto of Surrealism published by Breton in 1930].

No interest in the opera howls they make in their corner. Pac wrote a pitiful letter to Aragon. Attached are recommendations for Norah [Sadoul]. She should start with the Lyolène house, Place Vendôme, it is less slutty than elsewhere [Haute couture house founded in 1929 and located at 16 Place Vendôme in Paris]. Ask M[ada]me Hélène on my behalf, she will be well received.

Agnès-Drecoll, Place Vendôme [Haute couture house located at 24 Place Vendôme in Paris] (find the numbers in the directory) ask M[ada]me Tamara, a friend of mine, who works there as a saleswoman. She will do what she can, which may not be much. Bernard (avenue de l'Opéra 33, I believe) ask M[ada]me Weber, a designer in the house. Her husband went to [Lycée] Carnot with Aragon.

Elsa Triolet continues her recommendations for Norah] Put the recommendations in envelopes. I really didn't think I would need business cards here! Feed Norah well so that she is healthy and beautiful.

I don't believe it! We hope to be able to bring Buñuel. I send you and Norah my love. Elsa Kiss the three babies for me. The writer here provides many details about her installation, which seems Spartan with the one who is still only her partner.

She then expresses her bitterness towards André Breton, whom she only refers to by his initial "B.", who is trying to maintain ties with the filmmaker Luis Buñuel. It should be noted that Aragon had already distanced himself from the surrealist group the previous year by denouncing the aesthetics of the movement in his poem "Front rouge," while defending his Marxist-Leninist position (which led to his indictment for incitement to murder). André Breton, who initially defended his friend, later wrote the text "Misère de la poésie" to claim the autonomy of poetry. Aragon does not recognize himself in Breton's text and signifies his break with him and the surrealist group in L'Humanité on March 10, 1932.

Triolet concludes by giving a strong opinion on the matter by stating that she has not read the Manifesto of Surrealism (an allusion here to the second edition, published in 1930). At this time, the writer was making necklaces for haute couture, alongside her literary production.