André BRETON (1896-1966). Autograph manuscript, 1st Conference in Mexico City, May 1938; 5pages in-4 in green ink. Unpublished manuscript of the first Mexico City conference. [Breton was in Mexico from April 18 to August 1, 1938, to deliver a series of lectures on the literature and art of the time. The first lecture, given on May 13 at the University of Mexico, has remained unpublished; a review appeared in the May 15 issue of La Prensa under the title "Las Transformaciones modernas del Arte y el Surrealismo". See Œuvres complètes (Pléiade), t.II, p.1829]. The manuscript, in green ink, shows numerous erasures and corrections. "All the paths I have seen the modern mind follow for the past twenty years lead to Mexico. This is the point of convergence of all the great roads of adventure on which this spirit is engaged, tirelessly searching for the means by which the world can be transformed, by which life can be changed. For many of us, European poets and artists, the very word Mexico has taken on a magical virtue in the heart of childhood"... And Breton evokes Arthur Rimbaud, who was marked by reading Costal l'Indien, quoting several of his verses; then there's the Douanier Rousseau, celebrated by Apollinaire... He then insists on the presence of the "mythological past" in Mexican popular culture... Mexico is also "a marvellous social crucible from which have sprung, over the last twenty years, the greatest sparks in the direction of progress"... Finally, Breton sees Mexico not only as "the chosen land of black humor", but also as "an inexhaustible reservoir of romantic energy, of that romanticism which we are only beginning to understand has turned our entire psychic life upside down, making us experience not only the fertility of the mythical imagination [...].Even today, it's around Romanticism that we're fighting, the word isn't too strong", and in particular German Romanticism, so threatened in Germany... Etc. Former Jacques Millot collection (Bibliothèque du Professeur Millot, June 15, 1991, no. 18).