Jean. Opium: Journal d’une désintoxication. Dessins de l’auteur.

by COCTEAU

£3,750 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Recovery from Opium Addiction in Text and Image COCTEAU, Jean. Opium: Journal d’une désintoxication. Dessins de l’auteur. Paris: Librairie Stock, Delamain et Boutelleau . 1930. 8vo. Original cream printed wrappers, spine and upper cover lettered in black and gold, partially uncut; pp. 264, [2], with 40 plates after line drawings by Cocteau (included in pagination) and a further 3 plates after collages by Cocteau; very slight lean, creasing, and spotting to spine, spine ends a little worn, very light toning and dust-soiling to covers; internally clean; overall a very good copy. First edition, number 14 of 28 copies printed on Japon Impérial, of Cocteau’s extraordinary account of the physical and mental anguish of his withdrawal from opium addiction, extensively illustrated by the author. Cocteau had largely been introduced to opium by the French musicologist and sinologist Louis Laloy (1874–1944) in 1924, during a period of profound depression following the unexpected death of the writer Raymond Radiguet. ‘Cocteau shut himself away with the amateur Sinologist and the musicians in a room in their hotel … A hundred times he tried to absorb [opium], more bitter than bromide; a hundred times he complained about not feeling any benefit from it. Finally, after three months, the anguish fell away’ (Arnaud, pp. 351–2). Cocteau wrote and illustrated Opium between 16 December 1928 and April 1929, while undergoing treatment at a clinic in Saint-Cloud, and it was during this time that he

• Binding: Hardcover

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