Signé ; René CHAR - Les Matinaux - 1950

René Char, autograph inscription to Albert Béguin on Les Matinaux (1950), “faithfully and with all my heart.”

Original edition on plain paper, copy from the Press Service. The cover has evidently been re-attached. In very good interior condition.

If Les Matinaux is not as well known as Fureur et mystère or Les Feuillets d’Hypnos, it is, however, in this collection that one of René Char’s most famous passages appears: “Impose your chance, seize your happiness and go toward your risk. By watching you, they will get used to it.”

Albert Béguin was a Swiss literary critic, editor, author and translator. The publication of his thesis caused a deep stir, as can be judged from this letter by André Breton: “I hailed the appearance of L’Âme allemande with a cry of joy. I know nothing so important, so exaltant for years.” From 1942, Albert Béguin created and directed the Cahiers du Rhône. Thus, by publishing works of Péguy, Aragon or Supervielle, he committed to supporting, during the war, the struggle of French writers who defend the values of France at the heart of threatened Europe. In this, through his work, he joins the poet-resident René Char, who needs no introduction.