Lot n° 10
Estimation :
150 - 200
EUR
Olympic Games/ summer, 1924/ Paris/ Poetry/ Echirolles. Two - Lot 10
Olympic Games/ summer, 1924/ Paris/ Poetry/ Echirolles. Two exceptional volumes of poetry by the French Olympic literature champion of the 1924 Games, M.Géo Charles (alias Charles Guyot, 1892-1963). With his collection "Jeux Olympiques", the modest but luminous Géo Charles moved a jury including Paul Claudel, Paul Valéry, Blasco Ibanez, Gabriele d'Annunzio, Jean Giraudoux, Marcel Prévost, Maurice Maeterlinck and Selma Lagerlöf....There were 32 writers-poets-novelists representing 10 nations, including Henry de Montherlant for France, with "Le Paradis à l'ombre des épées". This vermeil medal was not the great ray of sunshine expected for the talented Géo, who continued to create and fight until his last breath, without finding a hint of recognition. His widow, as luminous as he, preached in the wilderness, until a certain Alain Arvin-Bérod in Echirolles, near Grenoble, finally offered him the deserved sanctuary in a XX museum. Yes, two exceptional pieces, because a) the first, "Jeux Olympiques" , Nrf, 1925, despite a cover broken at the edges, features a portrait of the author engraved by Foujita. This copy, numbered 400 out of 750, features an original use of the loudspeaker to revisit fragments of the 1924 Olympic boxing tournament in the open air, as poetic license dictates. A theatrical work in three acts-rounds, with choruses and punch, around several fights where categories telescope in anticipation of the final between the indefatigable Jean Royer, the French amateur champion (middleweight) and Jim Harris (the Olympic and American champion)...The fight is more poetic than regulatory, but in the end, the two opponents fall into each other's arms...The French victory is anecdotal...18,5x13,5. Very fragile; b) "VIIIè Olympiade (1924-1928)", this moving 204-page volume published in Belgium (18.5x14), please, by Editions de L'Equerre, is a painful consecration for the 1924 Olympic champion. It is a day-by-day account of the 9 days of athletics, as well as all the events of the Games. From Uruguayan footballers to Weissmuller, via the modern pentathlon, the victory of Williams, the Titanic survivor, in tennis, or Rigoulot, they're all here, the heroes of 24, the French water polo team, which was crowned (it's also forgotten) is here, as are Michard, Ducret. The winter sports of the first Games in Chamonix are no more forgotten than the painful memories of the trenches and Jean Bouin....The rhythm is hectic, the images twirl, the loudspeaker does the belly dance. The Eiffel Tower, the Champ de Mars, William Webb Ellis are all present, as are Charlemont and the Passage des Panoramas, where French boxing took off... He believed in the Olympic Games, but in the end, all he has left is Love. In anger, he speaks of perjury and lies: "Games, you have lost the innocence of sport"... Géo, the swallow, is smashed, alas, but what a flight! Good used condition, two or three pages badly cut, small horn on cover. With dispatch from the author. A brief graphological analysis of Géo Charles will be offered to the purchaser.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue