Lettre autographe signée adressée à Max-Pol Fouchet

“My dear Max-Pol, it is with sorrow and disgust that I read what you allowed to be printed about my friends Elsa and Aragon in the latest issue of Fontaine. I imagine you will not be surprised if I never contribute to Your review again. Paul Éluard.”

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“Éluard’s reaction followed the publication of issue no. 62 of Fontaine, a special issue on Instances de la poésie in 1947, and was aimed in particular at the remarks made by Isidore Isou in his article “Qu’est-ce que le lettrisme? Bilan lettriste 1947,” in which Isou violently attacked Louis Aragon: “Because the patriot Aragon slept with the camp-follower Elsa (whom he allows himself to compare to France), and animated this dreary act (the bedding) with a worthless poem (the waltz of Elsa), here he is, hailed as national bard! (…) for an Aragon, if he dies today, dies definitively for Poetry the next day (…) Thus the true Resistance (the historical, the political) was used to cover the horrible poetic betrayal practiced behind it, in its name.”

In “Les poètes de la revue Fontaine” (Poésie 1, nos. 55–61, 1978), M.-P. Fouchet states: “Lettrism was then making its appearance, or rather its eruption — thirty years ago already! It seemed natural to me to give it an important place, if only as a document. I expected a scandal; it exceeded my expectations. As with the publication of Antonin Artaud’s text, many readers protested and canceled their subscriptions, disregarding the terms of my Foreword and the presence in the table of contents of texts signed by John Dos Passos, B. Groethuysen and Pierre Gascar (a novel, L’Asile, which remained unpublished). Isidore Isou’s violence toward Aragon angered Paul Éluard, whose friendship I did not regain until later. We saw former Dadaists grow irritated at these new iconoclasts.” (p. 407). Fontaine ceased publication with the following issue, no. 63.” (Max-Pol Fouchet sale)