Letter to The Americans by Jean Cocteau

Translated by Alex Wermer-Colan and published by New Directions, 2022

The two cultures I admire the most are the French and Japanese. Superficially they are similar in that they are believers and followers of a seductive style and importance. They are also very aware of the outside world and understand aspects of that culture. Generally speaking, America is very focused on its world and has little understanding beyond its borders. So commentary from writers/artists from other parts of the world regarding the fifty states of America has always interested me. It is challenging to be a reflection and be able to reflect on that image, where an outsider can observe in a manner that is honest and subjective due to their culture and that person’s sensibility.

Jean Cocteau took a trip to New York City in 1949 and spent twenty days in that city, and on his way back to Paris, he wrote Letter To The Americans on an Air France flight. I’m not sure if this was Cocteau’s first visit to America or New York, but it must have been somewhat of a fantastic trip to see a world that is so different from Europe. A landscape not affected by bombings or misery from the last great war. The skyscrapers yelled out a positive approach to the future with grand gestures toward that direction. For Cocteau, the most significant literary figure from America must have been Edgar Allen Poe. Translated into French by Charles Baudelaire and much admired by the French Surrealists (as well as Japan’s great gothic-noir writer Edogawa Rampo -whose name is the Japanese pronunciation of Poe’s name). I imagined the imagery from Poe’s work and mixed it with the current sounds of Jazz, and the new theater of Tennessee Williams must have been a potent cocktail of sounds and images for Cocteau.

On one level, Cocteau comments on the imbalance of French writers translated into English, while American literature is very much in full attention in France. The French literary world paid attention to authors with a small readership or who weren’t published in the States. Writers like David Goodis and Jim Thompson have a respectful readership in French, but figures like James Baldwin and Chester Hines also have a voice in the foreign world. Cocteau, in his ‘letter,’ asks Americans to appreciate the new in France besides the old paintings in museums or authors of the 19th century published by the major publishing houses. Also commentary between the Hollywood industry and the European model. The way a culture admires its filmmakers or artists. Throughout the book, Cocteau argues for open communication and sharing ideas. It also notes the cultural differences between the countries.

Seventy-seven pages long, but maybe a lifelong learning curve is among these pages.