A lot of letters to and from Georges Bataille have been published (for example, here), but the two bound volumes of correspondence at the Bibliothèque nationale are still something to behold. Given how much of his library and correspondence has been sold and scattered, it’s great to see so many letters in one place.

There are letters from and some to an extraordinary range of people – Axelos, Bachelard, Blanchot, Caillois, Camus, René Char, Marguerite Duras, Eliade, Max Ernst, Jaspers, Klossowski, Koyré, Kojève… Lacan, Lévi-Strauss, Magritte, Malraux, Merleau-Ponty, Jean Piel, Eric Weil…

The full listing is here – volume I and volume II.

Magritte’s letters are accompanied by an ink sketch of a scene of daylight and clouds, with a door opening to darkness and a crescent moon. He entitles this “Le Savoir”, dates it to 1961 and dedicates it “à Georges Bataille”. It’s a version of this painting.

The Lacan postcard is from Sils Maria, showing the Nietzsche plaque:

It’s signed both by Jacques and Sylvia, who used to be Bataille’s wife before she married Lacan.

There were only a couple of things in here which I really wanted to look at for my current work, but this was certainly an interesting collection – and absolutely priceless.