Georges Bataille Autograph Letter Signed on The Tears of Eros

  

Georges BATAILLE (1897–1962) — Writer and librarian. Autograph letter signed to Jean-Marie Lo Duca. Les Sables d’Olonne (Vendée), 9 quai Wilson. Haunted by illness, the writer devoted his final years to publication.

“I have made, and I continue to make, a desperate effort to bring things to fruition. Alas, the treatment I followed to get back on my feet on the doctor’s advice had rather the opposite effect.

I am at the end of my strength. I am working all the same, but I am moving forward very slowly, very, very slowly. I no longer know what to say to you. Sometimes I find myself faced with corrections that have made my text worse.

Thank God, this is not true overall, but it shows how great the difficulty is; only my conversation would allow me to explain to you where I stand. The only thing I can say is that, on the one hand, I will do everything to get my nerves back in order, through medical treatment, and that, on the other hand, I will only stop working to the extent that I realize it is becoming muddled. Tell me where you stand, exactly what you require, and whether there is any need, again, on the illustration side.

Above all, reply to me on one precise point: until what date will you be in Paris, that is, until what date can I try to meet you there? I apologize for all these difficulties and I ask you, despite everything, to count on me. Despite everything, the work I still have to do is not such that I can for a moment think of giving up until the day I send you the finished manuscript; I put everything else aside until that day.”

He adds in a postscript:

“I believe above all that it would be of great interest for us to meet.

I will do my best to have what already exists typed up, not too late, in the next few days, in its final version.”

Following severe pain, Georges Bataille consulted his friend Dr. Théodore Fraenkel as early as 1955, who diagnosed cerebral arteriosclerosis; at fifty-eight, the writer knew he was doomed. Despite his critical health, he completed his final publication, The Tears of Eros, the last to be published during his lifetime, after two years of work.

The book presents a history of painting under the double sign of Love and Death, Eros and Thanatos, illustrated with abundant imagery, sometimes the subject of criticism, combining reproductions of works of art, engravings, and photographs, from Lascaux to the surrealist experiment. The Italian writer and film critic, one of the founders of the...