Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Jean Cocteau Collection: How 'Astonishing'?, Paul J. Archambault

The Courier

Between 1963 and 1971, the Syracuse University Library acquired more than two hundred fifty holograph manuscripts by Jean Cocteau. These are now to be found in the George Arents Research Library for Special Collections, where they enhance an already rich assortment of French manuscripts that have been thoroughly listed in a previous article in the Courier. An abridged history of their acquisition might be told here. The story is interesting, for it includes several of those ironical twists that made so much of Cocteau's life seem like a chassé-croisé with Death, choreographed by the artist himself.