Cocteau: A Biography.

596 Pages·1970·45.358 MB·English

by  Francis STEEGMULLER

Books by Francis Steegmuller
APOLLINAIRE: POET AMONG THE PAINTERS
LE HIBOU ET LA POUSSIQUETTE
THE CHRISTENING PARTY
THE GRAND MADEMOISELLE
THE TWO LIVES OF JAMES JACKSON JARVES
MAUPASSANT, A LION IN THE PATH
FLAUBERT AND MADAME BOVARY: A DOUBLE PORTRAIT
STATES OF GRACE
FRENCH FOLLIES AND OTHER FOLLIES
THE MUSICALE
THE SELECTED LETTERS OF GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (translator and editor)
MADAME BOVARY (translator)
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT: INTIMATE NOTEBOOK 1840--1841 (translator and editor)
PAPILLOT, CLIGNOT ET DODO (with Norbert Guterman)
SAINTE-BEUVE, SELECTED ESSAYS (translator and editor,
with Norbert Guterman)
Under the name BYRON STEEL
0 RARE BEN JONSON
JAVA-JAVA
SIR FRANCIS BACON
Under the name DAVID KEITH
A MATTER OF IODINE
A MATTER OF ACCENT
BLUE HARPSICHORD (hard cover; later, as a paperback under the name
Francis Steegmuller)
A IIIOGllAl,HY
An Atlantic Monthly Press Book
LITTLE, BROWN A:-.D COMPANY • BOSTON • TORONTO
COPYRIGHT @ 1970 BY FRANCIS STEEGMULLER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRO·
Dt:CED 1:S ANY FORM OR BY ASY ELECTRO:SIC OR MECHANICAL
MEANS INCLUDISG INFORMATION STORAGE ASD RETRIEVAL SYS·
TEMS WITHOt:T PERMISSION IS WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER,
EXCEPT BY A RE\'IEWER WHO !\.IAY QUOTE BRIEF PASSAGES IN A
REVIEW.
LIB II.ARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD SO. 76-1 I 7039
FIii.ST EDITION
Appendix XIV and portions of Chapters 5 and 6, Copyright© 1969
by The New Yorker Magazine, Inc.
ATLANTIC-LITTLE, BROWN BOOlltS
ARE PUBLISHED BY
LITTLE, BROWS ASD COMPANY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS
P1<blislzed sim11ltaneomly in Canada
by Little, Brown & Company (Canada) Limited
PRINTED IS THF. t:SITED STATES OF AMERICA
To Shirley
Author's Nc,te
I
NVALUABLE assistance has been rendered to this work, since its
inception, by the following persons, to whom I off er particular
thanks: William Abrahams, Comte Henri de Beaumont, Douglas
Cooper, Pierre Georgel, Mme. Albert Gleizes, M. and Mme.
Maurice Goudeket, Norbert Guterman, Jean Hugo, the late Mme.
Valentine Hugo, the late M. and Mme. Andre Maurais, Igor Stra•
vinsky, Mme. Olivier Ziegel.
My thanks are due to Edouard Dermit for his permission to
quote from Cocteau's letters and other documents.
I wish to ~xpress my gratitude also to the following persons:
Miss Berenice Abbott, Harold Acton, Mme. Pierre Albert-Birot,
Louis Aragon, Robert M. Asselineau, W. H. Auden, Georges Auric,
Vander Barbette, Miss Natalie Barney, Jean-Louis Barrault,
Jacques Barzun, Cecil Beaton, Yvon Belaval, Claude Benedick,
Ingrid Bergman, Emmanuel Berl, Sir Isaiah and Lady Berlin, Dr.
Charles Berlioz, Eugene Berman, Leonid Berman, Princesse Marthe
Bibesco, Mme. Madeleine Bourret, Mrs. Erse Breunig, Reginald
Bridgeman, Dr. Henry Brill, Richard Buckle, Wesson Bull, Roger
Caillaud, M. and Mme. Julien Cain, Mlle. Gabrielle Chanel, Miss
Geraldine Chaplin, Frarn_;ois Chapon, Morton N. Cohen, Leo Cole
man, Lady Diana Cooper, Robert Craft, William Crawford, Mrs.
Mina Curtiss, Colonel Deloste, Jean Denoel, the late Marcel Du
champ, Jean-Claude Eger, John H. Field, the late Don Antonio de
Gandarillas, Signora Liliana delli Ponti Garuti, Georges Geffroy,
Mrs. Romaine Brooks Goddard, Vladimir Golschmann, Miss Peggy
Guggenheim, Philippe Halsman, Jacques Hebertot, Miss Mary
Hoeck, Georges Hugnet, Frarn;ois Hugo, Herbert Jacoby, Philippe
Jullian, Miss Pauline Kael, Mme. Jeannette Kandaouroff, Jean
Jacques Kihm, Lincoln Kirstein, Boris Kochno, Philip Kolb, Pierre
de Lacretelle, Vincent Laloy, Richard Lane, Paul Leake, Henri
X Author's Note
Lefebvre, Raoul Leven, Harry Levin, William Lieberman, Serge
Lifar, James Lord, G. Magistry, Jean Marais, Miss Sylvia Marlowe,
Leonide Massine, the late Pierre de Massot, Robert Medley, Andre
Meyer, Bernard Minoret, Paul Morand, Raymond M~rtimer, Dr.
Werner Muensterberger, Comte Anne-Jules de Noailles, Vicomte
Charles de Noailles and the late Vicomtesse de Noailles, :Miss
Georgia O'Keefe, Alain Ollivier, George D. Painter, Francis Pal
mero, Henry Pearlman, Lady Penrose (Lee Miller), Jacques Perry,
Saint-John Perse, Jean Petithory, Roger Peyrefitte, Mme. Franc,;ois
Porche (Mme. Simone), Jacques Porel, Rene Radiguet, Miss Vicky
Rippere, Mme. Denise Roche, Ned Rorem, Sir Rohert and Lady
Sainsbury, Mme. Raphael Salem, Michel Sanouillet, Vanni Schei
willer, Mme. Elsa Schiaparelli, Mme. Robert Singer, the late Sir
Osbert Sitwell, Mlle. Suzy Solidor, Mlle. Nicole Stephane, Roger
Stephane, Miss Enid Starkie, Donald Ogden Stewart, Marchese
Uberto Strozzi, Daniel Talbot, Richard Thoma, Jean Vallier, Rene
Varin, the late Denise Van Moppes, Seymour de Vaulchier, Duca
Fulco di Verdura, the late Louise de Vilmorin, Paolo Vivante,
Baronne Wasmer (Marie Delle Donne), Mme. Alec Weisweiller,
Glenway Wescott, Monroe Wheeler, Henry Wibbels, Jean Wiener,
Edmund Wilson, the late Leonard Woolf, Princess X, Mrs. Marie
Shabelska Y akofleff.
And to the following institutions: Bibliotheque de I' Arsenal,
Bibliotheque Nationale, Bibliotheque Litteraire Jacques Doucet de
l'Universite de Paris ( Comite Andre Gide), Musee National d' Art
Moderne, Cinematheque Fran~aise (Mme. Mary Meerson), Biblio
theque Royale de Belgique. New York Public Library ( especially
its Library and Museum of the Performing Arts), the New York
Society Library, George Eastman House, Museum of Modern Art
( especially its Department of Film), American Museum of Natural
History, University of Florida Libraries, the Library of Congress.
Also: Manuscript Division, Syracuse University Library; Beinecke
Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University: The Hough
ton Library, Harvard University.
And to Janus Films, Inc. (fora private screening of Orphee) and
Universal Education and Visual Arts ( for a private screening of
Egypte 6 Egypte).
In addition, my thanks go to the many others who have kindly
responded to my requests for information or other assistance.
Except where otherwise specified, translations from the French
and the Italian are my own. F .S.
Contents
Author's Note ix
1. THE POET AS FREGOLI 1
2. THE POET OF THE SALONS 31
3. A KIND OF FIREWORKS 63
4. THE FIRST WORLD WAR OF JEAN COCTEAU 119
5. INVENTING THE TWENTIES 217
6. OPIUM, ORPHEUS, AND THE BLOOD OF A POET 319
7. COCTEAU, JEAN MARAIS, AND THE TENTH MUSE 417
Appendices
I. Portions of Cocteau's Military Dossier 503
II. Two Poems (Cocteau's "Quand Nous Serons 'Ceux de la
Guerre'" and Louis Aragon's "Les Lilas et les Roses") 504
III. Bernard Fay, excerpt from Les Precieux 506
IV. A Troupe of Actors Visits the Front 507
v. Cocteau "Leaves the War" 508
VI. An unpublished poem by Cocteau: "Rome, la Nuit" 511
VII. "Parade," by Guillaume Apollinaire 513
VIII. "La Mort de Guillaume Apollinaire," by Cocteau SIS
IX. Prince Firouz described by Reginald Bridgeman 516
X. From "The Aesthetic Upheaval in France," by Edmund
Wilson, Jr. 517
XI. An anecdote from Le Mot 518
XII. From Maurice Sachs's novel, Chronique !oyeuse et Scan-
daleuse 519