Amitié cachetée

Amitié cachetée is the first book published by Pierre André Benoît with a text by René Char. In October 1951, the singular printer-publisher from Alès wrote to the poet to offer his services. He was already familiar with painters and artists whom Char also knew — Rose Adler, Jean Arp, and above all Jean Hugo, who had spoken to him particularly about Char: “Jean Hugo told me about you a long time ago, and my steps have never yet led me, since childhood, into your neighboring region,” he wrote to him in the autumn of 1951, enclosing with this first letter the latest small book of his production as an example (Une histoire by Gérard Schneider). “If it would amuse you, I would be very happy to print one or several of your poems in a very small format, or a larger one.” Char replied as early as 18 October, showing keen interest, explaining that he was already familiar with his work — particularly through the publications he had done with Georges Braque. He then gave him the text of Amitié cachetée, which appeared a month later.

The print run of this first venture was as tiny as its format (85 x 90 mm), perfectly suited for mailing: 50 copies on mottled blue Auvergne paper, and 5 author’s copies on mottled white Montval paper, which the poet reserved for his closest friends to wish them a happy new year, “a dawn for each in the Dawn of all.” The starting point of a long collaboration that would only end in October 1985, with a hundredth and final book together: Nouvelles à la main.

The Paul Destribats copy (Christie’s, Bibliothèque des avant-gardes, II, 2020, no. 38), attractively bound by Georges Leroux, who designed for it a décor in the shape of a sealed envelope.

Amitiés cachetées 1, Fabre, 155; PAB, Bibliographie des Œuvres de René Char, 43; L’Herne, 168.