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Rene Crevel's era

Manuscript

Author

Author non identifié
People cited Georges Auric, Gaston Bonnefond, Jacques Doucet, Paul Smara, Jean Cocteau, René Crevel
Notes by Paul Éluard

Description

Brief commentary probably from Les Sommeils, dated 1 November 1922 and annotated by Éluard.

On the front of this page torn from a notebook, what seems to be a brief commentary about ‘Crevel’s appearance’, doubtless in the Sleeping Fits period. René Crevel, who later partly distanced himself from surrealist techniques, was the initiator and first subject of these hypnotic sleep experiments, which took place at rue Fontaine.

Dated 1 November 1922, the text may allude to the ‘brain’ that had recurred obsessively in Crevel's sleeping sessions over the previous weeks, particularly that of 28 September. On the back are a list of names accompanied by surrealist ‘definitions’ that seems to have come from a daydreaming session, without it being clear who (Crevel, Péret, Desnos?) answered the questions and distinguished the characters mentioned - some of whom could hardly have been present, Jean Cocteau being hardly flavour of the day among the group, while the older Jacques Doucet was more a patron than a companion: since 1920, he had been employing André Breton for advice about literature, and in August 1922, he offered a monthly subsidy for the journal Littérature. Hence perhaps this expression full of cynicism - but an innocent one, since it emerged from the unconscious:
‘bottom of the bag.’

Manuscript of 1 November 1922:
one torn page in-4, text handwritten by Paul Éluard:
‘Crevel's appearance explains the inversion of his brain. 1 XI 22.’
A game published in Littérature nouvelle série issue 6, 1 November 1922.

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

Bibliography

Sommeil, Littérature nouvelle série n°6, 1er novembre 1922.