Black Sparrow Press, Los Angeles, 1974. soft bound.
Unpaginated (15pp): Translated by Clayton Eshleman, Artaud's February 1947 letter to Andre Breton -- a quarrel which had begun in the late 30s when Artaud broke with the surrealists after Breton took the movement into affiliation with the French Communist Party. This letter was occasioned by Breton's critique of a lecture given by Artaud at the Vieux-Columbier on 13 January 1947, one of the highpoints of Artaud's final burst of creativity. Artaud had been in an asylum in Rodez for most of WWII, and was transferred in early 1946 to a clinic near Paris, and reentered cultural life; he was awarded a prize for Van Gogh, le suicide de la societe, gave the famous lecture and wrote a play commissioned by the French government radio station. (This work was recorded but never broadcast because of obscenity and anti-Americanism.) In 1948, Artaud died of cancer. The letter to Breton summarizes Artaud's many complaints against the world and states rather succinctly his artistic program. Published in the Black Sparrow's monthly of August 1974; in spotless condition. very fine.

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