Jean COCTEAU (1889-1963). 17 L.A.S., one a.s. postcard and one telegram, 1954-1963, to Pierre Lazareff, director of France-Soir and France-Dimanche; 18pages in-4 or in-8, 2 envelopes (with 7 double dactyl. replies). Correspondence to the director of France-Soir and France-Dimanche, requesting explanations, insertions or corrections. May 15 1954. He protests against an article: "It is unworthy to sully the triumph of a French play in Hamburg, unworthy to sully La Machine infernale, unworthy to sully Jean Marais, unworthy to sully me" (Lazareff replies that it is a translation error and on May 17, sends the corrected article, for which Cocteau thanks him). - January 1955: on his candidacy for the Académie française, supported by friends who go to great lengths: "Now (and not with you) journalists (from Arts and elsewhere) are demolishing all their work by attributing to me indecent words that I have never said. Can't you see a way to put an end to this destructive method? I'm a candidate, period" [he will be elected on March 3]. - October: he complains about an article in France-Dimanche which, on the other hand, asks for his acceptance speech to the Académie française "in Peter Cheney style"; he urges Lazareff to certify "that this text will not be accompanied by any ridiculous commentary or any image likely to disfigure its purely linguistic meaning"... March 23, 1958: he asked for a correction to be inserted following an article stating that he was going to design ties: "Very shocked by this ridiculous announcement by a tie merchant, I would like it to be known that this kind of enterprise does not concern me". - April 29, 1959: "What's happened to me is atrocious. 15 journalists came to Milly to ask me if Princess Margaret was at home. [...] The words they made me say are indecent and ridiculous. I never said them"; he begged for a correction to be published: "For me, the whole of England and Oxford are at stake"... - September 9, 1960, after Le Testament d'Orphée: "After this extraordinary marathon and the triumph in theatres, I thank France-Soir for dragging me through the shit"... March 11, 1961. Awarded the Légion d'honneur, and overwhelmed by the flood of congratulations, he asks Lazareff if he can "express my gratitude through France-Soir". - May 10: from Marbella, he asks Lazareff to set the record straight about Jérôme Kilby's play Cher Menteur, of which he is only the adaptor: "In truth, the real authors in France are Maria Casarès and Pierre Brasseur, because one has the impression that they improvise"... June 16, 1963: he is convalescing at Jean Marais's, but journalists had come to see him: "I wasn't yet capable of 'paroles' and Match had photographed me on the fly, between the Palais-Royal and Jeannot"; he embraces Pierre and Hélène Lazareff "with all this poor messy heart"... Etc. We enclose 2 L.A.S. to Hervé Mille, of France-Soir: - [December 31, 1951], about the Cocteau-Mauriac controversy over the play Bacchus (Cocteau's article Je t'accuse... Lettre ouverte à François Mauriac enclosed); - November 28, 1953, on the death of Henry Bernstein: "The 'literary' theater killed him [...] His triumphs were the triumph of the anecdote and the dramatic news item"...