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Response to Marianne Oswald

[Interview with Marianne Oswald ]

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Giorgio De Chirico, Sigmund Freud, Jules Guesde, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Jean Jaurès, Marianne Oswald, Hans Prinzhorn, Max Ernst, Alfred Jarry, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso

Description

Breton interviewed by Marianne Oswald and prepared by Breton in handwritten and then typed forms, probably dating from May 1950.

Never published in France before being included in the Inédits II of the third volume of the Oeuvres complètes, this interview Marianne Oswald conducted with Breton adopts a very oral form, as can be deduced from deciphering the manuscript to which it is due. Intended for German readers, the text has the virtue for today's audience of shedding light on part of the context of the years 1948-1949, in which Breton become involved in the ‘Citizens of the World’ movement. The poet also looks back to much earlier memories, dating in particular from 1914. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Autograph manuscript and typescript, sd.
- 4 pages in-4° handwritten in blue ink by Breton, with erasures and corrections:
‘Dear Marianne, by coming to my home for so long you have robbed me of a chance to welcome you properly. [...] When the concierge tells you Mr. Breton lives on the second floor and a half, we were concerned whether his apartment would be a replica of that of the poet Alfred Jarry, the author of Ubu Roi, in which a very low-ceiling left him unable to stand up. [...] A whole corner of the room is covered with books. A sneak peek: the works of poets and more poets, but also a full selection of Hegel and Freud [...].’
- 4 typescript pages identical to the manuscript (with the addition of a last sentence).
Scratchings and corrections in Breton's hand. [sale catalogue, 2003]

*This entry was translated from the French by Michael Richardson.

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition de Marguerite Bonnet avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier, Marie-Claire Dumas, Étienne-Alain Hubert et José Pierre), « Titre article », [Inédits II], Œuvres complètes, tome III, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, p. 1113-1118, notice p. 1470-1471.