EUGÈNE GRINDEL ÉLUARD, KNOWN AS PAUL (1895-1952) AND ANDRÉ BRETON (1896-1966) Autograph letter jointly signed by Paul Éluard and André Breton, countersigned by Robert DESNOS, addressed to Marcel

Raval. Paris, 19 July 1923. 1 p. in-folio. Envelope preserved. Polemic around Robespierre The poet Marcel Raval managed the literary magazine Les Feuilles libres, with the Swiss writer Wieland Mayr as editorial secretary. Mayr had published an article in the newspaper Le Gaulois contre Robespierre et Marat on 3 March 1923, and Robert Desnos came to slap him in the face, with André Breton, Max Ernst and Paul Éluard as witnesses. He pursued Wieland Mayr with his vindictiveness by having an article published in January 1924 in Les Feuilles libres, under the name of Paul Éluard, «Le Génie sans miroir» (The Genius without Mirror), which praised the madness that playfully monkeys automatic writing: shortly afterwards he circulated a note revealing the trickery and the keys to the text, to underline his opponent’s poor qualities as a reader.