COCTEAU (Jean). - Lot 69

COCTEAU (Jean). Born in Maisons-Laffitte. 1885-1963. Poet, cartoonist, playwright and film-maker. L.A.S. "Jean" to "Dear Mary" [Mary Hoeck, translator of his works into English]. Milly, Monday, undated [November 13 or 19, 1952?]. 1 page in-4, in Tyrian pink pen. Cocteau, who has just received a translation from Mary Hoeck, laments, ...Alas unable to follow anything but my own text in your beautiful and difficult language. I'm scolding you again: you should have given the letter back to Van L. He would have been very annoyed because it has nothing to do with what he says about it. He adds, allusively, about his daily life: ...Ici chien chat et objets se portent bien et vous envoie (sic) leur salut amical, en même temps que le mien, celui de Francine et de Cégeste [Francine Weisweiller et Édouard Dermit]...Cocteau had met Francine Weisweiller in 1949. The wealthy heiress, who ran a salon in her townhouse on Place des États-Unis in Paris, played the role of instigator. Cégeste: a character in Cocteau's film Orphée (1950), played by Édouard Dermit, Jean Cocteau's adopted son.