Antonin ARTAUD is asking for help for his literature.

Antonin Artaud (1896-1948)

Autographed letter signed to Marius-François-Pierre Roustan, Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts

Two folio pages. Paris, October 16, 1931.

Postscript by Jean Paulhan and pencil annotation by the recipient: " 33 years old, not married ".

A magnificent letter in which Antonin Artaud supports his request for subsidies with a list of his most remarkable works and achievements.

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"Mr. Minister, I have the honor to request your kind consideration for the allocation of aid from the Letters fund.  I am the author, among other books, of a sort of adaptation of Lewis's "The Monk," published last March by Denoël and Steele, as well as several booklets published by Gallimard in the "One Work, One Portrait" collection, including "The Navel of Limbo," "The Nerve Weigher," and "Jacques Rivière Correspondence."

I have been contributing to the Nouvelle Revue Française since 1924. In 1927, I founded the Alfred Jarry Theatre , which presented, among other plays, "Les Mystères de l'Amour" and "Les Enfants au pouvoir" by R. Vitrac, and, most notably, a performance of Strindberg's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which was its first presentation in France. I am currently completing a biography of Abelard, which occupies me entirely and requires me to conduct very assiduous research in several libraries. It is to bring this work to a successful conclusion and with complete freedom that I am requesting this assistance. Please accept, Mr. Minister, the expression of my highest regards. Antonin Artaud.

Jean Paulhan supports Artaud's request at the beginning of the letter and indicates the poet's address:

"Mr. Antonin Artaud is a remarkable writer and, moreover, perfectly honest and upright. He is in dire need of help. I respectfully recommend him to the Minister's consideration."

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It was not until the end of January 1937 that Artaud, still supported by Pauhan, obtained an "emergency relief" of 600 francs from the Letters fund, after having suffered several refusals.

All the works cited here by their author are essential: the first milestones of a nascent career, they form the spectrum of Artaud's artistic personality. Between writing and the stage, with prose and the epistolary form, mysticism and the surrealist temptation, this brief evocation of Artaud's works by himself reveals the full importance of his work, past and future.

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