COCTEAU JEAN: (1889-1963) French Writer, Playwright and Filmmaker. An excellent Autograph Statement Signed, Jean ...

COCTEAU JEAN: (1889-1963) French Writer, Playwright and Filmmaker. An excellent Autograph Statement Signed, Jean Cocteau, one page, 4to, St. Jean Cap-Ferrat, n.d. (1962), in French. Cocteau's statement was evidently written for publication and relates to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, stating, in part, 'Pouchkine has possessed, more than any other poet has, the privilege of pretending to die. The bullet which killed him also granted him everlasting life on earth and in heaven…With a supreme elegance, his work, untranslatable because of its singularity, fluently crosses a plural world which considers more and more the genius as a privilege of the aristocracy…With Pouchkine the great Lord and the common man unite and compose the specific phenomenon to overcome the world´s discords. He reigns over the noble souls whoever they belong to.´ Cocteau has also added a note which he circles in the left margin, and signs with his initials JC, requesting that his handwriting is not reproduced. Matted in purple alongside an unsigned 6.5 x 9.5 photograph of Cocteau standing in a full length pose alongside Russian ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev's tomb at the Isola di San Michele in Venice and framed and glazed in a decorative gold coloured wooden frame to an overall size of 23 x 17. VG
Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) Russian Poet, Playwright & Novelist of the Romantic era. Considered by many to be Russia's greatest poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.Cocteau's artistic talents encompassed many fields as a successful writer, playwright, designer, artist and filmmaker. He is most remembered for his novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929) and the films Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949). His large circle of friends (and lovers) included many contemporary luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, Marlene Dietrich, Erik Satie, Coco Chanel, Igor Stravinsky, Edith Piaf and Colette.