Jean Cocteau denounces the Night of Poetry, autograph letter signed Reverdy

  
May 31, 1954 - A full in-4 page. Size: 27 x 21 cm. Creases, small tears at the margins, and a tiny opening at the center fold. A very amusing and interesting letter in which Cocteau denounces the Night of Poetry (which took place the same day, May 31, 1954, at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris).

The poet, although accustomed to salons, had a holy horror of what he called “official” or “municipal” poetry. The fact that Aragon phoned him to tell him to “swallow the pill” is also delightful. Aragon, a leading figure in the Communist Party, was a regular at strategic compromises and large mass events. He probably tried to convince Cocteau that the cause (the gala, the money, the visibility) justified putting up with the burdens of the organization. Cocteau finally mentions Pierre Reverdy, whom he would have liked to see there.

For Cocteau, Reverdy represented the “high priest of poetry” and “one of the few living poets who never betrayed.” In 1954, Reverdy was living in seclusion in Solesmes, in an almost monastic asceticism begun thirty years earlier. Yes, it’s true that I am very fond of you — but you must have understood that I took off in the face of this vile and ridiculous Night of Poetry. I thought we were going to put on a gala X — for the money — and then give that money to a poet who would not be a one-day queen. Alas, when I learned that it was a matter of mixing our rags with their napkins, I got the hell out. I had demanded Reverdy’s presence, whereas the affair was being presented in another form. Aragon phoned me to say I had to swallow the pill. I am going to write to the proper people — but no one ever listens to me — that is my only honor. Below, a splendid photograph of Jean Cocteau one month earlier, on March 31, 1954, signing autographs during his presidency of the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.