[TANGUY] PÉRET, Benjamin. Dormir dormir dans les pierres.

Paris: Éditions Surréalistes, 1927.

4to. (225 x 176mm.). 36 unnumbered pages. Lithographic cover and four further illustrations by Yves Tanguy, the COVER AND FRONTISPIECE HEIGHTENED IN GUACHE BY TANGUY in red, white and green, numerous smaller illustrations to text, SIGNED AT END BY BOTH PÉRET AND TANGUY. A few pages with some very light scattered foxing. A very good, clean copy in its original beige paper wrappers printed in black, joints and spine lightly rubbed, a few minor creases to two corners.

FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST BOOK ILLUSTRATED BY TANGUY, THE COVER AND ONE OF THE PLATES HEIGHTENED BY HIM IN GUACHE; one of 205 copies (this no. 119 of 175 on vergé paper), SIGNED BY BOTH ARTIST AND AUTHOR; THE FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED BY THE SURREALISTS THEMSELVES.

Péret (1899-1959) was, with Breton, one of the earliest Surrealists. Breton and he had both been Dadaists after the war, and co-authored the early Surrealist work, ‘Poisson soluble’ (Soluble Fish) in 1924. Péret was an active communist and, having moved to Brazil after marrying the singer Elsie Houston, he was soon expelled as an ‘agitator’ and returned to France…where he was arrested by the Germans in 1940. He was released on an indemnity of 1,000 Francs, which Picasso helped him pay. He was an active and important poet; Octavio Paz wrote of him that he was one of the ‘most original and wild [poets] of our age - who never lost his faith in life…it was thanks to men like Péret that the darkness that enveloped the 21st century was not total’.

Tanguy (1900-1955), of Breton origin, became friendly with the Surrealist poet Jacques Prévert while in the army during World War I. He was completely self-trained as a painter, and had begun painting after seeing a work of Giorgio de Chirico’s. His work introduced a new and very recognisable abstract tone into Surrealist art, with its minute and precise forms and constructions lost in endless, pale mindscapes. These are considered his finest illustrations, the visual content balancing perfectly with the text.

This collection of poems are among Péret’s rare love poems. Set in the kingdom of sleep and dreams, in a lonely elemental landscape where the wind brings change and truth is hidden in coal, sleep is presented as the unification of the person with nature.

Sleep had a very important place in the Surrealist canon, especially at this time; it was, for the Surrealists, the highway to the unconscious, the root of thought unfiltered by our conscious minds. Inspired by free association, the text is influenced by Péret’s interest in automatic writing (like ‘Poisson Soluble’), and weaves together death, love, sleep and poetry.

Éditions Surréalistes was established in 1926 and operated until 1968, producing in all 59 works, including pamphlets. This is the first book produced by the publishing house, now known for its poetical publications, which were illustrated by the foremost artists associated with the Surrealist circle.

Édition originale, le premier livre publié par Les Éditions Surréalistes, le premier livre illustré par Tanguy, cet exemplaire avec la couverture et une illustrations rehaussée en guache par Tanguy, et signée par l’auteur et l’artiste. Un de 210 exemplaires. Trés bon état.

G. Sebbag, Les Éditions Surréalistes, n° 7; Y. Peyré, Peinture et poésie, p. 122 (”Ce livre est une perfection…”); Castleman, A Century of Artists Books, Museum of Modern Art, p. 179.