141 - Henri MICHAUX. Exorcisms. Paris, Robert J. Godet, 1943.

Henri MICHAUX. Exorcisms. Paris, Robert J. Godet, 1943. Small in-4 format, black leather, smooth spine with title in capital letters set in a mosaic of brown boxes, black suede endpapers and linings, gilt edges, cover preserved, slipcase, case (Georges Leroux, 1988). First edition, printed in a run of 277 copies. It is illustrated with 12 full-page drawings reproduced in the text and a four-color print on coated paper. One of the 7 front-of-run copies on Madagascar paper (copy E) containing a signed autograph manuscript, an original drawing in India ink, a justified and signed four-color print with 4 states, a color suite of illustrations, and 11 rejected plates. The original drawing included is the one illustrating “While You Speak.” The signed autograph text reproduces the first five lines of the text “The Masks of the Void.” Signed autograph dedication on the half-title page: EXORCISMS are well worth a stamp collection To Georges Spyridakis, from his friend Henri Michaux. A poet and translator (notably of Reverdy), and director of the Greek pavilion at the Cité Universitaire in Paris from 1935 to 1949, Georges Spyridakis was a member of the Resistance. His poem “Mort lucide” appeared in *L’Honneur des poètes* in May 1944, published by Éditions de Minuit. Before the war, he had become friends with Paul Éluard, Georges Hugnet, and Henri Michaux, who dedicated most of his books to him. After the war, he became cultural attaché at the Greek Embassy in Paris. His library, which was privately dispersed, was remarkable. From the Daniel Filipacchi and then Pierre Leroy collections (2002, no. 260).