ELUARD, Paul. L’évidence poétique.

Paris: G[uy]L[évis]M[ano], 1937.

18mo. (142 x 96mm.), ff. 8. Printed on two-toned yellow and blue paperstock. Original paper wrappers printed in black, stapled, original glassine. Spine very lightly rubbed, one or two very minor creases, else fine. Provenance: modern collector’s label on inside of glassine cover.

First edition, on yellow and blue satin paper. Published on the occasion of a conference linked to the Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, organised by Roland Penrose. Penrose was the foremost English Surrealist, and husband to both Valentine Penrose and later Lee Miller. He was instrumental in founding the ICA, and in 1936 organised this exhibition in London, to which Dalí famously came dressed in a deep-sea diver’s suit. In this publication, Eluard discusses poetry’s place in the increasingly tense everyday world, significant influences on the Surrealist movement, including Sade and Lautréamont, and the absurdity of war; pointing out that he and Max Ernst, in 1936 the best of friends united artistically and politically against the fascists in Spain had, in 1917, been fighting each other in opposing trenches.
This work is actually the first number of the series ‘habitude de la poésie’, published before the stated first number.

Édition originale sur papier satiné jaune et bleu, dans un trés bon état de conservation, publié á l’occasion de l’exposition Surréaliste á Londres en 1936. L’avant-premier numero de la série ‘habitude de la poésie’.

A. Coron, GLM, 121; Éluard, La Pléiade, II, p. 1326