René Char Signed First Edition and Autograph Letter to His Printer

  

René Char - Signed EO and Signed Autograph Letter to his Printer. René Char is a familiar figure at the Imprimerie Union since The Hammer without a Master published by the Surrealist Editions in 1934, until the late 1970s. Notable works include La bibliothèque est en feu (Edition Louis Broder) in 1956, Lettera Amorosa (Edition Engelberts) in 1963, L'effroi la joie (Au vent d'Arles) in 1969, Se rencontrer paysage avec Sima in 1973, Contre une maison sèche in 1975, and De "La sainte famille" au Droit à la paresse (Edition Jean Hugues) in 1976. Numerous letters were sent to Louis Barnier, director of the Imprimerie Union, of which the archives only retain those written between 1952 and 1979, where René Char expresses his friendship for the printer, discusses corrections to be made, and provides details about the printing of upcoming works. The present copy of De la sainte famille au Droit à la paresse is one of 100 copies on Richard de Bas, signed by René Char, accompanied by a signed autograph letter to his printer.

An admirable dry house that I will inhabit and to which I owe my thanks. De la sainte famille au Droit à la paresse was published on the occasion of the exhibition, in the spring of 1976, of the book Contre une maison sèche (1975), composed of a poem by René Char, and 9 etchings by Wifredo Lam and original aquatints by Wifredo Lam. René Char recounts his meeting with Wifredo Lam, "an astonishing account that captures the effect of presence that seizes the poet, in May 1947 or 48, in front of two canvases by the Cuban artist. While his sense of smell is engaged by 'the violent aroma of reconciled forests' in the Pierre Loeb gallery on rue de Seine, he will only rediscover the powerful sensation evoked 'the day after tomorrow, wandering at night across the Claparèdes plateau in the Luberon,' thanks to a 'chorus of stridulating crickets.