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The personal and professional life of
French poet, novelist, artist, playwright, and filmmaker Jean Cocteau is
reflected in the Carlton Lake collection of Cocteau's manuscripts,
correspondence, personal papers, notebooks, drawings, financial and legal
documents, and third-party papers. The collection is arranged in four series:
I. Works, 1910-1929 (6.5 boxes); II. Correspondence, 1913-1959 (2.5 boxes);
III. Personal, 1908-1950 (1 box); and IV. Third-Party Works and Correspondence,
1905-1925 (1 box). |
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The bulk of the collection is a large portion of Cocteau's personal
archives that was sold without his permission to a French dealer in 1935. (For
a detailed history of the papers, see chapter nine of Lake's
Confessions of a Literary Archaeologist.)
Because the papers went to the dealer in several small lots, it has not been
possible to be certain of Cocteau's original arrangement. Therefore, works have
been arranged alphabetically by title and correpondence alphabetically by
correspondent. |
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Within the Works series are manuscripts or proofs of most
of Cocteau's writings until about 1928, a period that encompassed some of his
best work, including
Le Cap de Bonne-Espérance,
Le coq et l'arlequin,
Les enfants terribles,
Le grand écart,
Le livre blanc,
Les mariés de la tour
Eiffel,
La noce massacrée,
Le Potomak, and
Thomas l'imposteur. Many of the
manuscripts and notebooks also contain drawings. Because the bulk of the
archives predates Cocteau's involvement with the cinema, that aspect of his
work is largely not documented. |
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Within the Correspondence series, the
folder of Cocteau's letters to Henri Lefebvre is actually the dossier of
Lefebvre's dealings with Cocteau and the sellers of Cocteau's papers (this is
the file referred to in Lake's
Confessions by the title
"Affaire Cocteau"). Cocteau's
letterswhich frequently concern his writing, his
philosophy, and his personal life'are, like his works,
sprinkled with drawings. Prominent among his correspondents are Jean and
Valentine Hugo, Max Jacob, Marie Laurencin, and Francis Poulenc. |
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The
Personal series includes inscriptions from other authors to Cocteau on
tear-sheets, address books, an autograph book from the beginning of his career,
and various documents such as his birth certificate, plans for the decoration
of his apartment, and a menu from a dinner at Le Boeuf sur le Toit. |
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Among
the Third-Party Works and Correspondence are letters from Cocteau's mother to
Valentine Hugo, and works by Raymond Radiguet as well as letters to him from
various correspondents. |