169 - Henri MICHAUX. Four Hundred Men on the Cross. Saint-Maurice d’Ételan, Pierre Bettencourt, 1956.

Henri MICHAUX. Four Hundred Men on the Cross. Saint-Maurice d’Ételan, Pierre Bettencourt, 1956. Quarto, paperback, cloth-bound cover, modern slipcase. First edition: limited to 270 copies. One of the 10 first-print copies reprinted on pearlescent Japanese paper (No. 8): it is accompanied by the typescript of the work (7½ pages in-4 format containing numerous handwritten corrections and strikings-through). Autograph inscription signed by the author: “Begun in 1952.” A remarkable publication by Pierre Bettencourt distinguished by its original layout. “Michaux is perfectly at home here, and the reader contemplates this book of dialogue that resonates within them. […] This little book is a masterpiece of empathy. The precision of the spirit that flows through the page and establishes its typographic truth is striking. The result, so miraculous, filled Michaux with wonder; he was always astonished to have been understood to such an extent” (Yves Peyré). It is illustrated with three out-of-text drawings by Henri Michaux depicting Christ on the cross, reproduced as photogravures. “Some copies will even contain only two: present at the end of the binding process in Saint-Maurice-d’Ételan, Henri Michaux had removed one of the three drawings, as the bottom of the monogram had been cut off” (Jean-Pierre Martin, p. 494). He humorously alluded to this in a letter to Jean Paulhan when sending him a copy: “From the beautiful Bettencourt (typographically), two bad drawings, and… an experiment.” One of the three illustrations bears Henri Michaux’s autograph initials in pencil, as is customary for the first copies printed on Japanese paper. (Peyré, *Peinture et poésie*, p. 156.- Imbert, Nomenclature des livres et plaquettes publiés ou édités par Pierre Bettencourt, p. 34, no. 20. - BnF, Henri Michaux, peindre, composer, écrire, Paris, 1999, no. 170: “A sculptor and writer, but also a lover of books as objects—and thus a typographer and layout designer—Pierre Bettencourt produced fifty-four small books on his personal press between 1939 and 1956, all of which he designed himself. This one, whose typographic virtuosity is dazzling, is the last in the series.”)