Exile and other poems
Signed presentation inscription: “Pour Max-Pol Fouchet, mon amicale pensée, avec des vœux toujours très attentifs, ST. J. Perse, Washington, 1949.”
This edition brings together Saint-John Perse’s four “American” collections, published between 1942 and 1944 in Buenos Aires: Exil, Poème à l’étrangère, Pluies and Neiges. It also includes three previously unpublished texts written in the poet’s honor by friends: The Personality of St. John Perse, by Archibald MacLeish, The Art of St. John Perse, by Roger Caillois, and The Works of St. John Perse, by Alain Bosquet. A bibliography completes the volume.
Max-Pol Fouchet had previously published two of these collections in his review Fontaine: the Lettre à l’Étrangère (in no. 32) and Pluies (in no. 34), both in 1944. In April 1948 he informed Perse of his plan to devote a special issue of the review to him in July of that year. Perse replied at once, giving detailed suggestions on both content and form. The project was never carried out: beset by financial difficulties, Fontaine ceased publication at the end of that year.