Philippe SOLLERS (1936-2013). Autograph manuscript signed, Tel Quel (Préface), [1960]; 3pages in-4. Working manuscript of a draft preface to the journal Tel Quel, which Sollers founded with Jean-Edern Hallier in 1960; it contains numerous erasures and corrections. A three-part plan is noted at the head: "1. Independence of literature. (Ideologists, 'journalists'). 2. The perfection to be expected and why. 3. What is beautiful?" The "Preface" begins: "From the day when thought, less sought after for its own sake than for the sake of stooping to moral or political imperatives, ceased to be what we expected it to be: the foundation of our presence, its clear and difficult expression through art; this devalued thought just fit to emit ideas, to agitate around works, masking sensibility by the artifice of technique, finding to preach where it would suffice to love - and in silence; since that day, literature, which is accustomed to being despised and victorious, has defended itself with a bad conscience that would be surprising if it were not the pledge of a superiority that is equally pleased with that which denies it"... And Sollers concludes, before an entirely crossed-out Part 4: "It's not about a departure, it's not about a return, it's not about a school, it's not about a coterie, it's not about an ingeniously commercial enterprise, it's about literature, and we'll prove it to you".