A complete run. Uniformly, 13.6 x 18cm. approx 88 pp each respectively. Original wrappers, each with uniform cover design by Picasso. Text contributions by Louis Aragon, Georges Bataille, Rene Char, Paul Colinet, Lise Deharme, Paul Eluard, Xavier Forneret, Georges Hugnet, Max Jacob, Michel Leiris, Jean Paulhan, Francis Ponge, Jacques Prevert, Raymond Queneau, Jean Paul Sartre, Tristan Tzara, et al. All in very good condition. Complete runs of this clandestine journal are hard to find.

Price is for all four numbers together

Three separate numbers of this wartime clandestine revue. Nrs 10 and 11 are uniformly 25.5 x 20.5cm, 4pp, nr 18 is 8pp. Long propaganda articles and poetic patriotic musings by many of the radical writers of the time including surrealists written mostly under pseudonym ("Argonne" is clearly Louise Aragon for example) and others also contributing to both group and individual articles included Claude Morgan, Paul Eluard, Jean Paulhan, Jean Paul Sartre and Michel Leiris. These copies are browned due to the cheap paper employed and with minor wear around edges but overall very good indeed.

All copies of Les Lettres Francais are rare especially in good condition. (Not to be confused with the exiled revue of the same name published by Roger Callois in South America).

PRICE IS FOR ALL THREE NUMBERS AS A GROUP

29.3 x 21.5cm, 136pp. A rare copy of the important book 'Nemoguce - L'Impossible' from 1930 - the almanac/manifesto of the 13 strong Serbian surrealist group.  This was the first publication of this manifest (which was later reprinted in part in the first edition of 'La surrealisme au service de la revolution' in Paris). Breton, Eluard, Peret, Aragon, Char and Therion also gave contributions to this extremely important, defining, publication.

The Serbian contributors and signatories to this manifesto document included Aleksandar Vuco, Oskar Davico, Milan Dedinac, Mladen Dimitrijevic, Vane Zivadinovic - Bor, Zivanovic - Noe, Đordje Jovanovic, Đordje Kostic, Dusan Matic, Branko Milovanovic, Koca Popovic, Petar Popovic and Marko Ristic.

Some wear to spine on both sides and minor paper loss around edges, surface paper loss to spine affecting spine title, some evidence of water damage in the past especially on rear wrappers but internally mostly very good although a few of the last pages have underlines and markings in pen. Priced accordingly but very rare in any condition.

21.5 x 13.5cm. 32pp. First edition. The rare alternative format of Breton's tract - published on bible paper with self cover. One small spot on front otherwise very good+.

This copy came indirectly from Breton's own library. It is estimated by one surrealist expert that only 100 such copies were produced.

21 x 13.5cm. 16pp. Original wrappers. The first edition of this counter- attack on Aragon after his own reposte to Breton in  "Misere de la Poesie"; with original contributions by Char, Crevel, Dali,  Eluard, Ernst, Peret, Tanguy, Thirion and Tzara.

The wrappers here have a former owner's name on the top left written in ink and some signs of dampness on the brown wrappers which have caused some stains and wrinkles but  internally all is VG. Scarce but priced to account for the condition issues.

21.5 x 13.5cm. 32pp. Card wrappers. First edition of Breton's political tract following the imprisonment of Louis Aragon for supposedly inciting revolution in his poem 'Le front rouge' (found in the revue "Litterature de la Revolution Mondaile" and signed jointly by a very large number of surrealists and other authors.

Slight browning to the pages and the first blank end paper appears to have been neatly removed but otherwise very good. This copy came indirectly from Breton's own library.

27 x 22cm, 8pp. Self cover. The true first edition of this clandestinely published poetic homage to the enslaved motherland of France - a collection of slightly trite poems which later drew Peret's attention and ultimately an attack on its openly nationalistic sentiments when the latter saw a South American edition of the later-expanded book.

The major argument between Peret and the 'resistance poets' mostly concerned the inclusion of both Aragon and Eluard who wrote works here under pseudonyms - Malo Lebleu being Aragon, Jacques Destaing being Eluard.

NB - this is NOT the later anthology of poetry of the same name but the original pamphlet printed on cheap paper with an anonymous short foreword extolling the role of patriotic poets in rallying the nation against their oppressors.

This is an uncut example although the cheap paper is browned and the edges have small tears and wear all round. Very rare.

26.8 x 21cm. 1pp. Black on white - Eluard denounced his old friend Louis Aragon "I have known Aragon since I was 14"  over the latter's break with Breton and his increasing Stalinism. Slightly browned otherwise very good.<br />

28 x 22cm, 4pp. Jointly authored response to the "affair Aragon" published by the Belgium surrealists on January 30, 1932. The Stalinist Aragon had broken with the surrealists after Humanitie (the mouthpiece of the french Communist Party) had bizarrely attacked Breton for defending his former friend after the publication of "Red Front" by Aragon which had been prosecuted by the French state because of its call to soldiers to rebel. Former vertical and horizontal creases but otherwise very good.

26.8 x 21cm. 4pp. Black on white. First edition of this open letter condemning the bourgeois appropriation of Rimbaud on the occasion of an unveiling of a monument to the gunrunner, pimp and poet. Signed in print by Aragon, Arp, Baron, Breton, Desnos, Duhamel, Eluard, Ernst, Leiris, Masson, Naville, Nouge, Peret, Prevert, Queneau, Tanguy and Unik amongst others. Slightly browned otherwise very good. Scarce early tract.

Price is for both issues together.