2 - ARTAUD, Antonin (1896–1948).

ARTAUD, Antonin (1896–1948). 2 autograph letters signed “Antonin Nalpas,” Chezal-Benoit, January 1943, to Dr. DONNADIEU, medical director; 2 pages, each in-4 format, the first on lined paper, the second in black pencil on school notebook paper. Poignant letters describing his split personality, addressed to the chief physician of the Chezal-Benoit psychiatric hospital, where Artaud stayed for a time during his transfer from Ville-Évrard to Rodez. Note: [January 1943]. “I had the opportunity to exchange a few words with you yesterday morning when you stopped by the ward to check on my dreadful state of malnutrition—and you have since thought that only a dead man could be so hungry, but that one could not be as dead as I am and still live on this side of things without the intervention of miracles and magic. For that is the only thing at stake in my case. And the case of mistaken identity I’ve been enduring for over five years, ever since I was brought back from Ireland, is, among other things, proof of this.” He refers to a mysterious scene where “the occult intervened […] This occult scene dealt with the very mystery of life and its secret nature, the essence of which belongs only to God, for in fact it is utterly incomprehensible. And only in the Middle Ages did a school of alchemists—whose leader is closely connected to you—come close to grasping its concrete mystery. But in the life we lead […] we are far removed from all these mysteries, just as we are far removed from all metaphysics, for one must eat first, and you acknowledged yesterday that if the highest ideas in this world are lost, it is because God does not eat enough. And evil comes. [...] For there is no crime worse than the sin of sexuality, he continues. And as for all that is sexual—for five years now, Dr. Donadieu, I have been institutionalized, sick, and rejected, waiting in vain for a man’s conscience to cross my path. I have a family that is only asking to take me in and feed me, but for five years now, French laws have prevented them from joining me. For three years now, the Ville-Evrard Asylum, where I was institutionalized, has refused, squandered, or had thrown away out of sheer malice the letters and food packages sent to me under the name Antonin Nalpas, and has destroyed the orders for my discharge and permanent release […] under the pretext that, according to the documents in its possession, I am Antonin Artaud”… He hopes that Dr. FERDIÈRE will come to get him, and begs Dr. Donnadieu to alleviate his misfortune.” He concludes by asking for tobacco, food, and books: “There is a book by Antonin Artaud that I like very much. It is called *Le Théâtre et son Double*”… January 27, 1943. “Among my personal belongings, along with a passport in the name of Antonin Artaud—which is the name the French regime has assigned to me—there is a small object that serves as a talisman to me, [...] and which I would very much like to have returned to me now. It has been listed as a letter opener [...] But to me it is not a letter opener; it is a religious and sacred object that I cherish as I would a cross or a rosary, [...] for it has the power to protect me against Evil and its evil spirits. It is a tiny miniature sword, modeled after the Durandal of Roland, which was cast and tempered in the same manner. [...]. Returning it to me would be a liberating act for me and, on your part, a gesture of piety.” Finally, he asks that a letter be forwarded to Dr. Ferdière. Attached are three administrative documents (from 1944 and 1949) concerning Dr. Donnadieu, and a pamphlet by A. Donnadieu, *Care for the Mentally Ill with Tuberculosis* (1952).