A billet-doux from Salvador Dalí

Dalí, Salvador. L’ Amour et la Mémoire. Paris: Editiones Surréalistes, 1931.

8vo.; 26 pages; age-toned; foxing; partly unopened; photographic frontispiece of Gala and Salvador Dalí by Luis Buñuel; pebbled salmon wrappers; spine worn with loss; discoloration; edgewear.

First edition of 310 copies, 10 on pearly Japan, this is copy 118 of 300 on velin blanc. Text in French.

In 1929, Salvador Dalí first met his future wife Gala [née Elena Ivanovna Diakonova], then married to Paul Éluard and the mistress of Max Ernst. It was love at first sight. In his Secret Life, Dalí wrote: “She was destined to be my Gradiva, the one who moves forward, my victory, my wife.” Gala also became Dalí’s muse: she was a frequent model in his work, often in religious roles as in the painting The Madonna of Port Lligat. Dalí wrote this long love poem to Gala, L’Amour et la Mémoire [“Love and Memory”], in 1931 at the height of their blossoming romance. The two married in 1932.