INDEX OF ANDRÉ BRETON'S LETTERS TO SIMONE KAHN (1920-1930)

1er janvier 2004

Thematic and reasoned index of André Breton's letters to Simone Kahn published by Éditions Gallimard in 2016

In broad daylight, Letters (1920-1930) – an album André to Simone BRETON, Under the direction of Katia SOWELS and Jules COLMART, Presses de l'ENS https://www.presses.ens.fr/558-a-paraitre-au-grand-jour.html 2020
Format: 19 x 20 cm | Number of pages: 216
ISBN-978-2-7288-0672-0
22.00 €

Collection "Æsthetica"

André Breton wished to live with his first wife Simone Kahn "in broad daylight" (letter of November 15, 1928). From his meeting with her in 1920 until their breakup in 1929, the poet made the letters he addressed to her his privileged place of expression. There, without concealing anything, he described his intellectual and poetic journey, from Dada to the Second Manifesto of Surrealism, from 42 rue Fontaine to all the cafés, fairs and meeting and demonstration places in Paris and France. But the correspondence is also the most intimate place of this period, where what he calls "mad love" is given to see in all its extent.
This album echoes the exhibition dedicated to this correspondence at the end of 2017: it brought together numerous manuscripts of André Breton's letters, but also manuscripts by Simone Kahn as well as books and photographs from the period. The work allows us to better understand the scope of the poet's relationship with Simone, thanks to a set of documents, often unpublished, which allow us to enter into André's intimacy and the history of surrealism in the 1920s. And it highlights Simone Kahn's singular personality. These documents are accompanied by texts by specialists (art historians, literary scholars and philosophers).