CREVEL, René.

Are you crazy? Paris, Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue F rançaise, [1929]. In-8 [188 x 117] of 216 pp, (2) ff. the last one blank: paperback. First edition, dedicated to Paul and Gala Eluard. One of the 696 copies in-octavo crowned on vellum paper pur fil Lafuma- Navarre, this one of the 16 hors commerce (copy a). EXAMPLE OF ANDRÉ GIDE, WITH AUTOGRAPHIC SIGNATURE: Copy // of André Gide // (to be read only // the last 50 // Berlin pages) // Sincere homage // René Crevel // I don't know // how to make // dedications. Gide was one of the great literary admirers of the young Crevel, who modeled his work on the character of Lafcadio in The Vatican Caves. The two writers met in 1917. The sending, twelve years later, is not without provocation. The "Berlin pages" recommended by Crevel are a direct allusion to André Gide's stay in Berlin in 1928. There, the writer visited Magnus Hirschfeld and his institute of sexology, intrigued by his theory of the "third sex". In the last chapter of Êtes-vous fous, Crevel, who was in Berlin at the same time, makes fun of the sexual institute of Dr. Optimus Cerf-Mayer. Good copy, partly uncut. ENCLOSED IS AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY RENÉ CREVEL ADDRESSED TO MARCEL RAVAL. "I jumped from Vence to Berlin decided to forget the illness. I have heard a lot about you here where everyone is angelic. [After Berlin I will go to the country to work. [...]" (Autograph letter signed "René Crevel", undated, 1 page in-4 on the letterhead of the hotel Am Zoo of Berlin, cancelled envelope preserved with stamp dated January 10, 1928. Tear roughly restored.) Poet, Marcel Raval (1900-1956) directed the review Les Feuilles libres, published from December 1918 to July 1928.