190 - Jean PAULHAN. *La Métromanie ou les Dessous de la capitale*, calligraphed and illustrated by his friend Jean Dubuffet. Paris: Presses d’Edmond et Jacques Desjaubert, December 1949.

Jean PAULHAN. *La Métromanie ou les Dessous de la capitale*, calligraphed and illustrated by his friend Jean Dubuffet. Paris: Presses d’Edmond et Jacques Desjaubert, December 1949. Small quarto, publisher’s brown cloth binding with title in gold lettering on the front cover. First edition. Printed in an edition of 150 copies: one of the 125 on rag paper, this copy unnumbered. Autograph dedication signed on the verso of the first leaf, opposite the title page: “To Henri Michaux, with great affection, Jean Dubuffet” It should be noted that the dedication is not from the author—who was nevertheless very close to the poet—but from the illustrator and calligrapher. Contrary to his usual practice, Henri Michaux attended the opening reception held for the book’s launch at the Nina Dausset Gallery on February 4, 1950: “There was a large turnout of métromanes yesterday,” he wrote the next day to Jean Paulhan; “it was a surprise.” The spine of the hardcover is slightly sun-faded. Included is the launch flyer for *La Métromanie*, featuring two compositions by Dubuffet. Dated November 15, 1949, and printed on a double sheet folded in half on brown paper. Published at the expense of the author and the illustrator, orders for the book were to be sent to either of their personal addresses.