The hermeticist, poet, playwright, and novelist known as Gérard de Nerval, a co-founder of the Bouzingo group, is the only member of the first-generation avant-garde who is still consistently championed in English avant-garde circles, largely thanks to the enthusiastic advocacy of the Surrealists, though the full scope and variety of his activities and influence are still not widely understood. During his lifetime, he was known within the avant-garde simply as 'Gérard' and often signed his work with nothing else; he worked under so many pseudonyms that his full oeuvre is still unknown, but he is remembered by the surname he created for himself later in his life.
Gérard was deeply involved with mysticism, cabbala, alchemy, and syncretic avant-theology that resembles contemporary chaos magic in many respects, and his most intense work is composed of intricate, idiosyncratic networks of constellating images and personal symbologies drawn from myriad literary and mythological sources. Though virtually unknown in the mainstream during his life, he was greatly beloved and revered within the avant-garde community, and was cared for with increasing concern by his friends and collaborators during the last fifteen years of his life, as his experimental mode of living led him past the point of psychological collapse and he oscillated between periods of exotic travel, miserable homelessness, and treatment in mental hospitals. His suicide in 1855 sent shock-waves through the avant-garde.
Like Lautréamont, Mallarmé, and Jarry, his work has resonated with uncanny intensity with certain people in the avant-garde, who have regarded their reading of him as a life-changing encounter and an insoluble puzzle with which their own life-project is somehow bound up. Such has been his impact on Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Jarry, Breton, Gascoyne, and many others. In the early twentieth century, just as the cult of Jarry began to become known as 'Pataphysicians, some of these people began to call themselves by the name of 'Nervaliens'. This collection contains books and ephemera previously owned and used by 'Nervaliens'.
Lot 1: David Gascoyne's Copies of Nerval
David Gascoyne, one of the most influential members of the British Surrealist group, was a dedicated Nervalien, who wrote on numerous occasions about Gérard's influence on Surrealism, owned a small library of Nerval's work in French and English, and sometimes "dressed as Nerval" in the street--by wearing a noose around his neck, a reference both to Nerval's own suicide and to his affinity for dressing up as Werther, Goethe's famous suicidal character. The Revenant Archive contains two of Gascoyne's personal copies of Nerval--one in French, bought in Paris in 1948, the other a review copy of a bilingual edition (with a note to him from the publisher inside) sent to him two years before his death.
Gérard de Nerval, Poésies. 1947. Fernand Hazan, Paris. Inscribed personal copy of English Surrealist writer David Gascoyne.
Gérard de Nerval, Les Chimères: Bilingual Edition. Trans. William Stone. 1999. Menard Press: London. Softcover 16 mo., 64 pp. Review Copy of English Surrealist David Gascoyne & Judy Gascoyne, w/bookplate. (Encloses letter to Gascoyne from publisher--see "Personal Artifacts" tab)
Lot 2: Nervalien Collection of Robert Emmet Jones
These books belonged to the research library of Robert E. Jones: biographer of Nerval, historian of Bohemian subculture and homosexuality, novelist, poet, and Professor of French Studies at MIT from around 1960 until 1985. Several of them contain marginalia, presumably pertaining to his 1975 biography of Nerval (a copy--not from his own collection--is included in the archive here). Jones was remembered as an inspiring and dedicated teacher, and edited an anthology of writings about political activism within the University system. The most unusual item in the collection may be the set of educational slides & lesson plan about Gérard's life and work.
The collection also contains two Nerval-themed early issues of the journal Archives des lettres modernes, specialising on the historiography of modern French literature. By 1969, the journal was publishing a series dedicated to full-length studies on Gérard, called the 'Archives nervallienne" series, the eighth number of which is also included.
Archives de lettres modernes (Archives of Modern Letters). No. 1, March 1957: Vers une Élucidation des Chimères de Gérard de Nerval (Toward an Elucidation of the Chimeras of Nerval), by André Lebois. ed. M.J. Minard. Softcover 32-mo., 32 pp.
Archives de lettres modernes (Archives of Modern Letters). No. 3, May 1957: Où en sont le recherches sur Gérard de Nerval? (Where is the Research on Nerval?), by Léon Cellier. ed. M.J. Minard. Softcover 32-mo., 32 pp.
Charles Dédéyan, Gérard de Nerval et l'Allemagne (Nerval and Germany). 1957. Societé d'Édition d'enseignement supérieur: Paris. Softcover Sextodecimo, 265 pp.
Documentation Audio-Visuelle Littérature: Gérard de Nerval "Le monde du rêve". Undated, c. 1970? Pedagogical Packet. Éditions Pédagogiques Diapofilm: Paris. Includes 12 sepia acetone slides and softcover 32-mo book of commentary by Emmanuelle Hubert, 12 pp., in custom-made clear plastic sleeve.
Marie-France Etienne, Gérard de Nerval: Janus multiplié (Multiplied Janus). 1987. American University Studies, Series II, Vol. 55. Peter Lang: New York. Hardcover Octavo, 195 pp. w/ marginalia by previous researcher.
Gérard de Nerval, Poésies. 1964. ed. Mounir Hafez. Gallimard, Livre de poche: Paris. Softcover 32-mo, 256 pp.
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Gérard was deeply involved with mysticism, cabbala, alchemy, and syncretic avant-theology that resembles contemporary chaos magic in many respects, and his most intense work is composed of intricate, idiosyncratic networks of constellating images and personal symbologies drawn from myriad literary and mythological sources. Though virtually unknown in the mainstream during his life, he was greatly beloved and revered within the avant-garde community, and was cared for with increasing concern by his friends and collaborators during the last fifteen years of his life, as his experimental mode of living led him past the point of psychological collapse and he oscillated between periods of exotic travel, miserable homelessness, and treatment in mental hospitals. His suicide in 1855 sent shock-waves through the avant-garde.
Like Lautréamont, Mallarmé, and Jarry, his work has resonated with uncanny intensity with certain people in the avant-garde, who have regarded their reading of him as a life-changing encounter and an insoluble puzzle with which their own life-project is somehow bound up. Such has been his impact on Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Jarry, Breton, Gascoyne, and many others. In the early twentieth century, just as the cult of Jarry began to become known as 'Pataphysicians, some of these people began to call themselves by the name of 'Nervaliens'. This collection contains books and ephemera previously owned and used by 'Nervaliens'.
Lot 1: David Gascoyne's Copies of Nerval
David Gascoyne, one of the most influential members of the British Surrealist group, was a dedicated Nervalien, who wrote on numerous occasions about Gérard's influence on Surrealism, owned a small library of Nerval's work in French and English, and sometimes "dressed as Nerval" in the street--by wearing a noose around his neck, a reference both to Nerval's own suicide and to his affinity for dressing up as Werther, Goethe's famous suicidal character. The Revenant Archive contains two of Gascoyne's personal copies of Nerval--one in French, bought in Paris in 1948, the other a review copy of a bilingual edition (with a note to him from the publisher inside) sent to him two years before his death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gérard de Nerval, Poésies. 1947. Fernand Hazan, Paris. Inscribed personal copy of English Surrealist writer David Gascoyne.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gérard de Nerval, Les Chimères: Bilingual Edition. Trans. William Stone. 1999. Menard Press: London. Softcover 16 mo., 64 pp. Review Copy of English Surrealist David Gascoyne & Judy Gascoyne, w/bookplate. (Encloses letter to Gascoyne from publisher--see "Personal Artifacts" tab)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lot 2: Nervalien Collection of Robert Emmet Jones
These books belonged to the research library of Robert E. Jones: biographer of Nerval, historian of Bohemian subculture and homosexuality, novelist, poet, and Professor of French Studies at MIT from around 1960 until 1985. Several of them contain marginalia, presumably pertaining to his 1975 biography of Nerval (a copy--not from his own collection--is included in the archive here). Jones was remembered as an inspiring and dedicated teacher, and edited an anthology of writings about political activism within the University system. The most unusual item in the collection may be the set of educational slides & lesson plan about Gérard's life and work.
The collection also contains two Nerval-themed early issues of the journal Archives des lettres modernes, specialising on the historiography of modern French literature. By 1969, the journal was publishing a series dedicated to full-length studies on Gérard, called the 'Archives nervallienne" series, the eighth number of which is also included.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Archives de lettres modernes (Archives of Modern Letters). No. 1, March 1957: Vers une Élucidation des Chimères de Gérard de Nerval (Toward an Elucidation of the Chimeras of Nerval), by André Lebois. ed. M.J. Minard. Softcover 32-mo., 32 pp.
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Archives de lettres modernes (Archives of Modern Letters). No. 3, May 1957: Où en sont le recherches sur Gérard de Nerval? (Where is the Research on Nerval?), by Léon Cellier. ed. M.J. Minard. Softcover 32-mo., 32 pp.
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Archives de lettres modernes (Archives of Modern Letters). 'Archives nervaliennes' series No. 8. 1969. Gérard de Nerval, Erreur de nom (comédie inédite) et Le Nouveau genre (Misnomer [unpublished comedy] and The New Genre). ed. Jean Senelier. 1969. Archives des Lettres Modernes: Paris. Softcover Sextodecimo, 108 pp.
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Charles Dédéyan, Gérard de Nerval et l'Allemagne (Nerval and Germany). 1957. Societé d'Édition d'enseignement supérieur: Paris. Softcover Sextodecimo, 265 pp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Documentation Audio-Visuelle Littérature: Gérard de Nerval "Le monde du rêve". Undated, c. 1970? Pedagogical Packet. Éditions Pédagogiques Diapofilm: Paris. Includes 12 sepia acetone slides and softcover 32-mo book of commentary by Emmanuelle Hubert, 12 pp., in custom-made clear plastic sleeve.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marie-France Etienne, Gérard de Nerval: Janus multiplié (Multiplied Janus). 1987. American University Studies, Series II, Vol. 55. Peter Lang: New York. Hardcover Octavo, 195 pp. w/ marginalia by previous researcher.
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Gérard de Nerval, Oevres. Vol. 1. ed. Albert Béguin & Jean Richer. 1960. Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pleiade: Paris. Softcover 32-mo., 1533 pp. Marginalia & inscription by Robert E. Jones.
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Robert Emmet Jones, Gérard de Nerval. 1974. Twayne's World Authors Series--Twayne Publishers: New York. Hardcover Octavo w/ transparent library cover, 188 pp. w/ Chicago Public Library stamps & pocket.
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