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Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Louis Aragon, Maurice Rostand, Guillaume Apollinaire, Antonin Artaud, André Breton, René Char, Jean Cocteau, Robert Desnos, Paul Éluard, Benjamin Péret, Pierre Reverdy, Philippe Soupault, Tristan Tzara, Raymond Radiguet

Description

Manuscript signed by André Breton and dated September 11, 1960 about the election of the Prince of Poets.

‘Guitar, a singing bidet’. Breton delivers a ferocious satire as he seeks to give an image typical of Jean Cocteau, who was described by Apollinaire (Le Poète assassiné) as a ‘fôpoète’. Supported by the testimonies of all the former surrealists, but also of Apollinaire and Reverdy, he returns to the scathing tone of the dada tracts to dethrone someone who, in a bout of megalomania, was elected ‘prince of poets’ in September 1960. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]
Handwritten manuscripts signed, Paris, 11 September 1960.
2 pages in-4 handwritten in ink by Breton, dated and signed, the first of which constitutes the first draft with erasures and corrections, and the second, on the back of a letterhead, ‘D'Arcy Galleries, International Surrealist - New York’.
In this text, Breton protests against Cocteau being elected as Prince of Poets:
‘Why should Cocteau be considered the anti-poet? Because in his work the mechanics of the image, which define the poetic capacity, constantly function in reverse: it is always falling and irresistibly plunges into this sort of defilement: ‘Guitar, a singing bidet’. What’s more, the content of his versification, without needing to resort to psychoanalysis, is little different from suggestions we read in urinals. See Jean Schuster’s explanatory note in no 658. [Sale catalogue, 2003]

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