SARTRE'S FIRST PUBLICATION

SARTRE, JEAN-PAUL.

L'Ange du morbide (Conte). [In: La Revue sans titre. Organe de Défense des Jeunes. Deuxième èdition].

(Paris, 1923). Lex 8vo. Entire issue present, with the original printed wrappers. Some tears to spine and a bit of wear to extremities. A fagile publication. Ff. (6-7). [Entire issue: 8 ff.).

Sartre's extremely scarce first publication, in the also exceedingly scarce first number of the "La Revue sans titre", here in the second edition from the same year, which is of equal scarcity to the first.

When Contat and Rybalka were making the bibliography of the writings of Sartre, they had great difficulty in finding the interesting rebellion publication "La Revue sans titre", which was - and is - not present in any French library. In fact, they finally borrowed a run of the magazine from M. Jean Gaulmier, professor of literature in Strasbourg, who possessed the only collection of the periodical that they could track down. The "L'Ange du morbid" had been reproduced in 1947 by Marc Beigbeder in his "L'Homme Sartre", but not quite in its entirety, and Contat and Rybalka thus printed the text again, for the second time since 1923, at the back of their Sartre-bibliography (1970) as the first part of the second appendix, which has the half-title "Textes retrouvés" (rediscovered texts).

This interesting story which constitutes Sartre's first publication was published when he was merely 18 years old. In a strongly satirical tone Sartre tells the story of a mediocre professor's adventure with a young patient who has tuberculoses. The main character, the professor of a small provincial school, constitutes the pre-figuration of the highly unsympathetic character that occupies his following publications.

The "Revue sans titre", of which we here have number one in its entirety, is also in itself interesting. The director of the publication is Charle Fraval, and the editorial secretary is Roger Letac. The publication claims to be "in defense of the Young", and on the front wrapper it states "Those who suffer from the mercantilism of literature, those whose talent is suppressed by the literary magnates, in short all the Young, have reason to read "REVUE SANS TITRE", the only organ in defense of the Young" (own translation, original: "Ceux qui souffrent du mercantilisme de la literature, ceux don't le talent est étouffé par les magnats des letters, tous les jeunes en un mot, ont intérêt à lire la "Revue sans titre" seul organe de defense des Jeunes."

Order-nr.: 39824