La Fin du Potomak
Paris, Gallimard, (February) 1940.
1 vol. (120 x 190 mm) of 195 p., [1] and 1 f. In wrappers.
First edition.
One of 45 copies on pur fil paper reserved for the author, among the 15 hors commerce copies (no. a).
Signed presentation inscription: “Mon cher André [Gide] que vous dire ? Vous savez que je vous aime malgré tout. Jean.”
One of 45 copies on pur fil paper reserved for the author, among the 15 hors commerce copies (no. a).
Signed presentation inscription: “Mon cher André [Gide] que vous dire ? Vous savez que je vous aime malgré tout. Jean.”
Cocteau noted in his journal in January 1944 that he had put more of himself into Essai de critique indirecte and this Potomak than into any other work. The gelatinous monster Potomak, present in the eponymous first novel, is absent from this new 1940 version, but continues nonetheless to deliver its messages — including one of reconciliation toward André Gide.
Their relationship had soured at the time of the original Potomak’s publication in 1919, when Gide had attacked the poems of Le Cap de Bonne-Espérance and Cocteau’s lack of musical competence. Cocteau had replied sharply, and their exchanges since then had always been marked by a mixture of esteem and intellectual rivalry. “Malgré tout”!
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