167 - ANOUILH (Jean), 1910–1987

ANOUILH (Jean), 1910–1987 Long handwritten letter, Montfort l'Amaury, undated, 4 pp., in-4, regarding the difficulty in selling Gaston BATY’s set of organs and marionettes: “”[...] There is a moral legacy to Gaston Baty’s work that we can neither disperse nor entrust to just anyone. I think you’ll have a hard time finding a madman who has a million and a venue to put on puppet shows… Professionals or specialized amateurs are likely to be interested only in the puppets [...]"" He offered to buy the entire collection himself for 750,000 francs, hoping that the realization of a film project would provide him with a quick source of income. Gaston Baty (1885–1952) was one of the founders in 1927 of the theatrical “Cartel,” alongside Louis Jouvet, Charles Dullin, and Georges Pitoëff, influenced by German theater he had discovered in his youth and the Expressionist movement. In 1930, he headed the Théâtre Montparnasse, which had evolved from André Antoine’s Théâtre Libre, and played a role in modernizing the Comédie-Française in 1936. Passionate about puppetry, which he saw as a way to “re-theatricalize the theater” and free it from realism, Baty devoted numerous texts and scripts to it. He planned a “Maison de la marionnette” (Puppet House) in Aix-en-Provence and founded the Comédie de Provence in 1950, which became a National Drama Center in 1952, the year of his death. Includes its original cultural property export certificate from the Ministry of Culture.