"À mon idée il faut laisser 'Poèmes choisis inédits'": An alternative title for Max Jacob's "Morceaux choisis"
Autograph letter signed.
4to. 2 pp. With autograph envelope.
€ 2.500,00
To his friend and protégé Maurice Morel, known as l'Abbé Morel, concerning a forthcoming publication of selected poems. Jacob asks Morel to insist with their friend, the theologian Jacques Maritain, to keep the inconspicuous title "Poémes choisis inédits" so as not to attract "hate and furor", as well as the information "chosen by l'abbé Morel". The second part of the letter concerns the contract, Jacob's dire financial situation, and the painter Jean Colle, who was currently in London and somehow involved in the projected publication. While there is no publication of Max Jacob entitled "Poémes choisis inédits", it is very likely that the anthology in question is identical with the "Morceaux choisis" published by Gallimard in November 1936.
The devout Catholic Jacob met the future priest Maurice Morel (1908-91) when he was taken in by Father Albert Fleureau in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire for detoxification in 1921. Jacob dedicated his 1921 poem "Le Laboratoire central" to Morel and encouraged him to follow his second calling as a painter. In his art, Morel was decidedly modern and abstract. He opened the Catholic Church of France to non-figurative art, even facilitating the introduction of modern art to the Vatican Museums.
Traces of folds.
