140 - Henri MICHAUX. Exorcisms.

Henri MICHAUX. Exorcisms. Paris, Robert J. Godet, 1943. Small in-4, paperback, cloth-bound cover, slipcase by Annie Boige. First edition: illustrated with 12 full-page drawings in the text and a four-color print on coated paper. Limited edition of 277 copies: one of the 250 on vellum (no. 97). Superb autograph dedication signed in India ink, accompanied by original drawings by René Bertelé on the half-title page: May the sorcerers and a few of their EXORCISMS help you … or at least provide inspiration with the friendship of Henri Michaux. from the collection of René Bertelé The drawings depict a group of three figures and an eye. (Drawings reproduced in *La Pléiade* I, p. 1345.) Also included is an original drawing in India ink, signed HM (26.8 x 20.8 cm), depicting an abstract figure in motion that is not part of the book. In 1943, when *Exorcismes* was published, René Bertelé (1908–1973) had only recently met Henri Michaux: they met in Marseille in April 1942, at a time when Bertelé was preparing a *Panorama of Young French Poetry*. Three years later, in 1946, he published two major books by Henri Michaux: *Apparitions* and *Peintures et Dessins*. And, to top it off, on September 15, 1946, Seghers published—as part of its famous *Poètes d’aujourd’hui* series—the first monograph devoted to Michaux, written by none other than Bertelé himself. The very warm inscription on this volume of *Exorcismes* would thus be the first trace of a friendship between the two men that never wavered. The drawing and the book are housed in a very elegant box by Annie Boige. (René Bertelé Collection Auction, 1997, no. 177, with a reproduction of the dedication.- Imbert, Robert J. Godet, Editor of Bataille, Michaux, and Desnos, 2000, no. 9.—Peyré, Painting and Poetry: Dialogue Through Books, no. 44.)