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The Debut of André Malraux, Editor (KRA, 1920–22)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Walter G. Langlois
Walter G. Langlois*
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky, Lexington
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Extract

Little is known of Malraux's life before his Indochina adventure in 1924. Most scholars dismiss his activities during this early period with the brief statement that he worked “in the art department of the publisher Kra,” or that he was “editor of their literary series called ‘Editions du Sagittaire’.” This lack of interest is partly due to the absence of much concrete information, Malraux being particularly reluctant to discuss what he calls his “vie privée.” Even more important, however, is the fact that most critics have never considered a knowledge of his publishing career to be very important for an understanding of his literary formation. This position hardly seems justified when one considers that publishing has always been a major interest of Malraux, particularly during the period preceding La Condition humaine. Since his work at Kra was in the nature of an initiation into this field, it is of considerable significance and deserves more attention than it has previously received.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , March 1965 , pp. 111 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1965

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References

1 Wilbur M. Frohock, André Malraux and the Tragic Imagination (Stanford, Calif., 1952), p. 4. Malraux's official title, according to a letter I received from his friend Louis Chevasson, was “directeur de collection.”

2 Janet Flanner, Men and Monuments (New York, 1957), p. 7. Two of the latest studies on Malraux—Charles D. Blend's André Malraux: Tragic Humanist (Columbus, Ohio, 1963), and Joseph Hoffman's brilliant and informative L'Humanisme de Malraux (Paris, 1963)—contain some valuable new facts relating to other aspects of his career but nothing on Sagittaire. André Vandegans has recently published an article entitled “Le Premier Malraux: Autour de la publication des Lunes en papier” (Publications de l'Université de l‘état à Elisabethville, v, April 1963, 67–99) in which he devotes a half dozen short paragraphs (pp. 74–77) to the Kra editions. He enumerates the titles issued, but unfortunately not at all in their correct order. Lacking documentation (his original list was probably obtained from Malraux's friend Pascal Pia—cf. p. 92), he is quite unaware of Malraux's overall artistic purpose and of his plans to present not one but two distinct series of luxury books. Virtually the only information given on Kra as a maison d‘édition is contained in a single brief note (p. 77, n. 45). Errors in date and pagination are to be found in several footnotes of the article in question.

3 See L'Ami du lettré, année littéraire et artistique pour 1927 (Paris, 1926), pp. 247–248, and René-Louis Doyon's Livrets du Mandarin, Series vi, no. 1 (May 1959), pp. 19–21. Information on the Kra family in the present article for which no source is given was obtained from Mlle Janine Paoly, formerly the personal secretary of Lucien Kra and presently owner of a book shop in Paris.

4 Jarry had a long list of minor publications to his credit, most of them relating to the history and archaeology of Paris. He indicates in a pompous preface to the Kra volume that he had already published some of these imaginary “Souvenirs d'un Parisien pendant la guerre” in a historical review which he edited. When it was pointed out to him that such “tableaux conçus un peu à la manière des lithographies romantiques” were out of place in a scholarly journal, he decided to issue them at his own expense. The edition numbered 300 copies, of which 250 were offered for sale. Kra sold only for cash, but he gave an exceptionally large discount of 33% to booksellers. See his half-page 18 April advertisement in Journal de la librairie, lxiii (1919), 614. The full title of this publication is Bibliographie de la France: journal général de l'imprimerie et de la librairie. It began in 1811 and is listed in the Harvard Library collection under the shorter title given above until 1926. Then the listing is changed to Bibliographie de la France. Each issue appeared in three parts. References in this article will always be to the lengthy third section. “Annonces,” in which the publishers of Paris advertised their forthcoming volumes.

5 See Jour. lib., lxiii (1919), 1422. The full-page advertisement, dated 15 August, noted that the book would clear up questions about what was going to become of “leurs Femmes, leurs Enfants, leurs Biens, leurs Créanciers,” and emphasized that “cet ouvrage, entouré d'une grande publicité, se recommande lui-même, par les immenses services qu'il est appelé à rendre ...” No reference was made to the size of the printing. The following month the Kra shop became the dépôt général for Marcello-Fabri's Revue de l'époque. Subsequent arrangements were made to print a collection of poems written by one of the collaborators. Plénitude, by Joseph Rivière, was issued in 300 copies and put on sale 23 April 1920, the very day of the initial announcement of Malraux's Sagittaire series. See Jour. lib., lxiv (1920), 924.

6 Michel Manoll, Blaise Cendrars vous parle (Paris, 1952), pp. 127–129.

7 Valuable discussions of various aspects of this bibliophilic craze are to be found in Bernard Grasset, La Chose littéraire (Paris, 1929) and in Léopold Carteret, Le Trésor du bibliophile: livres illustrés modernes 1875 à 1945, 5 vols. (Paris, 1946–48), especially i, 12–16, 243–248. The literary yearbook L'Ami du lettré which appeared annually between 1923 and 1928 contains a great deal of information on the luxury or art-book market. Many of the major French newspapers and magazines of the period also regularly published reviews of such volumes. Maurice Sachs often speaks of book auctions, prices, and exhibitions in his Au Temps du ‘Bœuf sur le toit‘ (Paris, 1948).

8 For further information on this subject, consult the detailed bibliography included in Louis Lanoizelée's Les Bouquinistes des quais de Paris (Paris, 1956).

9 René-Louis Doyon describes Malraux's activities as a chineur and relates the vicissitudes of the Laforgue edition in Mémoire d'homme (Paris, 1953), pp. 76–80, and in the latest of his Livrets du Mandarin (September 1962), pp. 3–20.

10 Jour. lib., lxiv (1920), 925. According to this announcement, all fifty Japan-paper copies of each title were subscribed before the edition was even offered to the general public.

11 Both the Gourmont and the Baudelaire volumes were completely subscribed by the time the announcement of Tailhade's Carnet intime appeared on 14 May 1920. See Jour. lib., lxiv (1920), 1127. The only information given on this book was that it was to be illustrated with “4 bois en deux couleurs de Kharis.” The first 50 copies on Japan paper sold for 40 francs, the remaining 750 on Holland for 15 francs. The publicity for Jarry's Gestes was published in the Jour. lib. on 26 November (p. 2690). The same advertisement noted that the Baudelaire volume had finally been published in an extra 200 Holland-paper copies, making a total of 750 for the edition. Gestes was to be issued in 1000 copies, but in a rather radical departure, the first 10 on Japan paper were all to have “une série de dessins marginaux originaux par l'artiste; chaque exemplaire orné différemment.” Georges Drains was also to provide an extra set of his seven etchings for these copies which sold at the very high price of 550 francs each. It was noted that seven of the ten copies available had already been subscribed. This sum was in itself probably more than enough to cover the costs of the entire edition. The remainder of the printing went for 66 francs (Japan) or 27.50 francs (Holland). This advertisement was repeated when the book finally came out on 25 March of the following year. See Jour. lib., lxv (1921), 699. La Patience de Griselidis appeared on 18 February, and the announcement in the Jour. lib. (p. 392) was partly printed in the Gothic type face used in the edition itself. One thousand copies were issued and priced at 50 francs for the Japan and 20 francs for the Holland. The artist P. A. Moras was to provide some seventeen woodcuts in two colors and a frontispiece in three to illustrate the text. The achevé d'imprimer for volumes (like those in the Sagittaire collection) which have original illustrations is not always a reliable indication of the actual date of publication since the text was often ready before the artist had finished the illustrations.

12 Bouquinerie-Librairie Gallimard—Catalogue d'éditions originales et de livres illustrés, précédé d'une notice par André Malraux (Paris, 1929), No. 11 (mars), p. 1.

13 See Raymond Hesse, Le Livre d'art du XIXe siècle à nos jours (Paris, n.d., 1927?), pp. 6–7. Also Grasset, Chose lit., pp. 167–178.

14 Raymond Hesse, Le Livre d'après-guerre et les sociétés de bibliophiles (Paris, 1929), p. 9–13.

15 See the article by André Warnod, “Jean-Gabriel Daragnès et le livre moderne,” in L'Ami du lettré ... 1926 (Paris, 1925), pp. 377–381. Raymond Mahé's book Les Artistes illustrateurs, répertoire des éditions de luxe de 1900 à 1928 inclus (Paris, 1943) is a very complete alphabetical listing of the artists who prepared illustrated volumes in the period 1900–27, together with the titles of the books they worked on. His 3-volume Bibliographie des livres de luxe de 1900 à 1928 indus (Paris, 1931–39) is arranged by authors and provides vital information on the size of the edition, publisher, price, etc.

16 See Jour. lib., lxiii (1919), 1818, and lxiv (1920), 1971.

17 The review, by Claude Roger-Marx, appeared in the 1 January issue. See Mercure de France, cxlv (1921), 228–229. Baudelaire's essay on Guys was entitled “Le Peintre de la vie moderne,” and it appeared as part of L'Art romantique (Paris, 1868), pp. 51–114. When the Club des Libraires de France made its recent sumptuous edition of Baudelaire critique d'art (edited by Bernard Gheerbrant, Paris, 1956), the text on Guys was accompanied by reproductions of a number of his watercolors (pp. 87–112). Several of them seem to be the very ones which Malraux used in his editions of the Causeries.

18 Charles Baudelaire, Causeries (Paris, 1920), p. 18. The ten-page introduction was by F. F. Gautier, a young man who was apparently just beginning to become known as a Baudelaire specialist. He was responsible for editing several of the volumes in the first N.R.F. edition of Baudelaire's Œuvres complètes, notably L'Art romantique which appeared in 1923. The underlining in the citation is his.

19 The first two of these artists are such minor figures that they are not even listed in the standard reference works on art. According to Mahé‘s Les Artistes illustrateurs, the only luxury book which Drains illustrated besides Gestes was the Kra edition of Laforgue's Complaintes, published in 1923. Kharis’ only other such work was a 1919 edition, L'Evangile par l'image, which he prepared for a bibliophilic group called “La Société des amis du livre moderne.” P. A. Moras was an artist who was somewhat better known. Edouard-Joseph indicates in his 3-volume Dictionnaire biographique des artistes contemporains (Paris, 1930–34) that he exhibited in the Salon des Indépendants for several years. In addition to the Gourmont volume, he prepared illustrations for two books by Jean de Tinan, also published by Kra: Annotation sentimentale (1921), and Aimienne ou le détournement de mineure (1922).

20 The article, called “Des Origines de la poésie cubiste,” appeared in the very first issue of Doyon's review La Connaissance (January 1920), pp. 38–43. An apparently unflattering reference to Symbolism in its opening paragraph provoked a reaction on the part of the critic J. Valmy-Basse. His comments appeared in his literary column “Le Carnet des lettres et des arts,” in the 20 February 1920 issue of Comoedia. He published parts of Malraux's letter of explanation (from which the citation is taken) the following week, on 26 February.

21 L'Ymagier, No. 1 (October 1894), 5. This magazine appeared irregularly in eight issues (the fifth number came out in two parts). For details about the publication and reproduction of some of the texts and illustrations, see Alfred Jarry, Œuvres complètes, Vol. viii: L'Ymagier, Perhinderion, Almanach du père Ubu, Répertoire des pantins (Lausanne, 1948), pp. 9–52.

22 The texts in question appeared in the Mercure during 1892 in the issues of February (pp. 168–171), March (pp. 263–265), July (pp. 257–259), and December (pp. 363–364). A note from Gourmont (November, p. 268) revealed the identity of the authors of the column and announced that the death of Aurier had caused the entire project to be abandoned for the moment.

23 L'Ymagier, No. 7 (May 1896), pp. 137–151.

24 Alfred Jarry, Gestes et opinions du Docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien; roman néo-scientifique, suivi de spéculations (Paris, 1911).

25 La Revue blanche, No. 84 (1896), pp. 489–493.

26 For a complete discussion of this whole question, see Jules Mouquet, Charles Baudelaire, œuvres en collaboration (Paris, 1932), pp. 119–124. The texts from Tintamarre are reprinted, pp. 125–219.

27 The review of the Livret appeared in the Mercure, cxli (July 1920), 182–183. Claude Roger-Marx's comments on the Baudelaire volume were published six months later in the January 1921 issue, pp. 228–229.

28 In a letter dated 22 October 1920 Max Jacob speaks of Malraux's activities connected with the new project. See Correspondance de Max Jacob, Vol. i: Quimper-Paris, 1876–1921, ed. François Garnier (Paris, 1953), pp. 221–222.

29 Jour. lib., lxv (1921), 264 and 855. On Ronald Davis, see L'Ami du lettré ... 1927 (Paris, 1926), pp. 250–251.

30 Jour. lib., lxv (1921), 855. The remainder of this 15 April advertisement was as follows:

“Viennent de paraître: Georges Gabory, Cœurs à prendre, poèmes avec seize eaux-fortes originales de Galanis. Cette édition est limitée à: 15 exemplaires sur papier du Japon aux prix de 140 francs l'exemplaire, 223 exemplaires sur vélin pur fil aux prix de 50 francs l'exemplaire. Les exemplaires sur Japon contennent un poème manuscrit et une suite des eaux-fortes tirées sur chine. Sont tirés en plus 12 exemplaires sur papier de Chine, avec une suite sur papier du Japon, souscrits par MM. Ronald Davis et Cie ...

“Pierre Reverdy, Etoiles peintes, poèmes avec une eau-forte originale de André Derain. Cette édition est limitée à: 15 exemplaires sur papier du Japon au prix de 125 francs l'exemplaire, 73 exemplaires sur papier vélin pur fil au prix de 50 francs l'exemplaire. Les exemplaires sur Japon renferment un poème manuscrit ...”

31 The Artist and the Book, 1860–1960, ed. Philip Hofer (Boston, 1961), pp. 59, 152–153. For an excellent over-all presentation of the modern art book, see Anthologie du livre illustré par les peintres et sculpteurs de l'Ecole de Paris, ed. Albert Skira (Geneva, 1946). The introduction by Claude Roger-Marx (pp. ix-xix) outlines the ideas of the less conservative collectors of illustrated books. Jean Hugues has edited a complete catalogue of Kahnweiler's art books, Cinquante Ans d'édition de D.-H. Kahnweiler (Paris, 1959), and his preface contains a great deal of information about Kahnweiler's life and the organization of his publishing ventures. Even more detailed is the recently published work by Kahnweiler himself, Entretiens avec Francis Crémieux: Mes Galeries et mes peintres (Paris, 1961).

32 Hugues, p. 7.

33 See Jacob's letter to Radiguet in Garnier, p. 221.

34 Malraux wrote a long article on Galanis which is not usually listed in bibliographies. Entitled “Les Illustrations de Galanis,” it appeared in Arts et métiers graphiques, No. 4 (April 1928), pp. 225–232. A list of the books illustrated by this artist appears on p. 232, and a number of the illustrations themselves are reproduced in the body of the article. The present citation is from p. 227.

35 Malraux's very earliest essay on art was the preface he wrote for an exhibition of Galanis' paintings at the Galerie La Licorne in Paris. This work, entitled Exposition D. Galanis; Catalogue précédé d'une préface par André Malraux—du 3 au 18 mars, 1922 (Paris, 1922), does not appear in Malraux bibliographies. It was subsequently reprinted as the article for “Galanis” in the second volume of Edouard Joseph's Dictionnaire biographique des artistes contemporains (Paris, 1931), pp. 88–91. The citation is from page 89. I presently own the original manuscript of this study. The illustrations of Galanis and Derain were highly successful contributions to the Kra project. Claude Roger-Marx specifically praised “le Sagittaire, dont les efforts sont inégaux, mais qui fait preuve de goût quand il s'adresse à Galanis (Cœurs à prendre) ou à Derain. ...” Mercure, cliii (15 January 1922), 519.

36 Hugues, Cinquante Ans, pp. 6–12.

37 Catalogue, p. 1.

38 The article in question appears on pp. 38–43. The parentheses and underlinings are Malraux's.

39 The 3 June issue of the Jour. lib., (1921) carried a full-page advertisement for the book (p. 1299): “Vient de paraître—Max Jacob, Dos d'Arlequin, avec illustrations en couleurs de Max Jacob gravées sur bois. Un volume in-8 double-teillière de 80 pages, imprimé en trois couleurs en caractères Nicolas Cochin. Edition Originale. Il a été tiré: 10 exemplaires sur papier du Japon, avec une suite des bois sur chine; ces exemplaires sont illustrés marginalement de 10 dessins originaux de Max Jacob et numérotés de 1 à 10, 550 fr. l'un ...” The twenty-five copies on Japan paper sold at 140 francs each and there were 203 on vellum at 50 francs each. No price was given for Davis' twelve copies. The advertisement concluded by noting that the two previous volumes in the series were completely sold out, except for some of the vellum copies of the Gabory poems.

40 Gabory was one of Jacob's coterie, and there are numerous references to him in Jacob's letters. When Florent Fels began publishing the art and literary review Action, both Gabory and Malraux contributed to it frequently. They are listed as co-editors, along with Paul Dermée, for the final two issues, December 1921 and March-April 1922. In an earlier number (December 1920, pp. 37–45), Gabory has a contribution entitled “Jeux.” In it he refers to “le visage de mon ami André M. que j'ai nommé exécuteur de mes hautes œuvres littéraires” (p. 39) and confesses that he spent hours “dans les grands bars avec André M. [où] on boit la vie avec des pailles” (p. 42).

41 Marcel Raymond, De Baudelaire au surréalisme (Paris, ed. 1940), p. 149.

42 Cœurs à prendre, pp. 29–30.

43 Raymond, pp. 265–266.

44 Garnier, pp. 221–222.

45 Vient de paraître, November 1922, p. 8.

46 A great deal of confusion surrounds this work. Malraux has apparently indicated recently that it was never published (Frohock, p. 165), but it is certain that some kind of mimeographed text was in circulation in 1921. See Gaëtan Picon, Malraux par lui-même (Paris, ed. 1961), p. 187. Several references are made to it in Parisian newspapers at the time of his conviction in Indochina, notably in Comoedia, 3 August 1924, p. 3, where it is noted that Malraux had finished “un nouvel ouvrage: Ecrit pour une idole à trompe” before he left Kra. Moreover, the verso of the title page of the Tentation de l'Occident (Paris, 1926) lists as one of Malraux's works “Ecrit pour une idole à trompe, 1921. Hors commerce.”

A large part of the text has been published in different literary reviews under various titles. In August 1921 the Belgian magazine Signaux presented an excerpt of some seven pages (pp. 171–177), calling it by the unwieldy title “Les Hérissons apprivoisés—Journal d'un pompier du Jeu de Massacre—publié après la mort de l'Auteur, avec des Notes, par le sieur des Etourneaux.” In the same month, the Parisian review Action published (pp. 16–18) another part of the text: “Journal d'un pompier du Jeu de massacre—Où vont les chats qu'on voit la nuit? Fragment.” It is probable that the contribution which Malraux is supposed to have made to Marcel Arland's short-lived review Dés in the spring of 1922 (Frohock, p. 6) was also from this same work.

As a gesture of solidarity during the Indochina imbroglio, Arland, a close friend of Malraux, published two of his texts in the October-November 1924 issue of the review accords (pp. 56–61), indicating that they had been taken from Ecrit pour une idole à trompe. The first of the two was a reprinting (with very minor changes) of the excerpt which had appeared in Action in 1921. The second item in accords was itself subsequently reprinted as part of a much longer extract, now called “Ecrit pour un ours en peluche,” in the summer 1927 issue of Massimo Bontempelli's Franco-Italian review '900 (pp. 114–124). It is this latter text which Frohock mentions briefly (p. 24) in connection with Lunes en papier.

47 Picon, p. 38. This is from the long comment made by Malraux on the creation of literary fiction.

48 Malraux had met Masson at Kahnweiler's home, shortly after the publication of Lunes en papier. See Albert Skira, Vingt Ans d'activité (Paris, 1948), p. 20.

49 Garnier, pp. 221–222. The underlining is Jacob's.

50 Jour. lib., lxv (1921), 2658–59. The blaring double-page spread for this very expensive (150 to 650 francs per copy) “première édition illustrée” was calculated to take advantage of Christmas buying. It appeared on 2 December. The edition was of 1000 volumes, and the illustrations were to be reproduced by the Saudé process. For bibliophilic purists, such illustrations were not acceptable because they were in part mechanically reproduced. According to Mahé, the only other book which the artist Beaune illustrated—besides the four France volumes—was an edition of Gourmont's Une Nuit au Luxembourg, which Kra also published.

51 Jour. lib., lxvi (21 July 1922), 1806–07; lxvii (15 June 1923), 1698–99; lxviii (18 January 1924), 124–125 and (5 December), 4063. During his stay at Kra, Malraux had worked on a number of other books which were not part of the two major collections discussed above. These included the two Jean de Tinan volumes previously mentioned and Sarazin de Verly's Quatre petites filles d'Eve, ou le mal d'Aymer (1922) among others. Doyon points out that small publishing houses sometimes issued volumes of erotica. (See Mémoire d'homme, pp. 92–93.) Sagittaire apparently did some of this kind of publishing too. A reviewer of one of their titles, Le Calamiste alizé, notes that it “n'est pas précisément de ces livres qu'il s'agit de répandre parmi les jeunes personnes,” and concludes that “cette petite débauche érotique” should be placed on a special shelf. See Le Disque vert, No. 6 (October 1922), p. 155. Kra had enough volumes in his stock to warrant his issuing a special catalogue, late in 1921. This suggests that some of the books Malraux prepared were never advertised in the trade paper, Journal de la librairie.

52 See Pascal Pia's article, “Dans ‘Les Voix du silence’ Malraux affirme la victoire de l'artiste,” in Carrefour, 26 March 1952, p. 5.

53 Jacob wrote a reply to Kahnweiler—who had given him this news—in a letter dated 12 October 1923: “Une mission à Malraux! L'eau va toujours à la rivière! Enfin! il va trouver sa voie en Orient. Il sera orientaliste et finira au collège de France comme Claudel.” Garnier, op. cit., ii, Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, 1921–1924 (Paris, 1955), 215. For a detailed account of Malraux's Asian experience, see my forthcoming André Malraux: The Indochina Adventure (New York: Praeger).