SURREALIST BOOKS
There are numerous books relating to
Surrealism and Surrealist writing. Here
is an extensive list of publications in English, most of which
can be found on Amazon.com and other Internet book
sites, plus a few harder to find gems that are certainly worth the extra
search.
The list is broken into four
catagories: Top Ten Recommendations
;
Books About Surrealism
;
Collections of Surrealist
Writing ; and Books by Individual
Authors
.
Top Ten Recommendations
1. La Revolution
Surrealiste
collection
complete nos 1 through 12
Editions Jean-Michel Place 1975
Note: This
book is not in English and it's rather hard to find. However, it's a gem
to anyone interested in Surrealism, featuring copies of all 12 issues of
La Revolution Surrealiste, published in Paris between 1924 and
1929. The same company also offers a collection of the 6 issues of
Surrealisme Au Service De La Revolution, originally published during the
1930s. The above link leads to a page where the
books can be purchased.
2. Liberty or Love
by Robert Desnos
Atlas
Press 1993
Note: This book is temporarily
out of print, but used copies are out there. It is arguably one of the
great masterpieces
of Surrealist literature. The above link leads to the Atlas Press website, which offers
numerous books relating to Surrealism and the
avant-garde.
3. The
Automatic Message
by Andre Breton, Philippe Soupault and
Paul Eluard
Atlas Press 2001
Note: Contains both The Magnetic
Fields (1919) by Breton and Soupault and The Immaculate
Conception (1930) by Breton and Eluard.
4. Death to the
Pigs
by Benjamin Peret
Atlas Press 1988
Note:
Contains Peret's surrealist novel Death to the Pigs and the Field
of Battle, as well as prose, poetry, letters & polemical
texts. The Atlas Press edition may currently be out of print, but the same
translation by Rachel Stella is also available through University of
Nebraska Press.
5. Mad Balls
by Benjamin Peret
Atlas Press 1991
Note: This book is
currently out of print, but worth the extra search. It contains Peret's
1928 story, with illustrations by Yves Tanguy. It's pornographic,
blasphemous and absolutely hilarious.
6. Collected Works Volume
One
by Antonin Artaud
John Calder 1968
Note:
Contains Artaud's early collections Letters to Jacques Riviere,
Umbilical Limbo and Nerve Scales.
7. The Secret Life of Salvador
Dali
by Salvador Dali
DASA Edicions, S.A.
1942
Note: Dali's outrageous autobiography has been available through a
number of different publishers over the years, including Dover, Kessinger
and Dial Press.
8. An Unspeakable Betrayal
Selected Writings of Luis Bunuel
University of
California Press 2000
Note: Contains Bunuel's wonderful surrealist
story Illegible, the Son of a Flute, among other
prose.
9. Poet in New York
by
Federico Garcia Lorca
The Noonday Press 1988
Note: Arguably the
greatest collection of surrealist poetry, written while Lorca was a
student at Columbia University in New York, 1929-30.
10.
Investigating Sex
Surrealist Discussions
1928-1932
Verso 1990
Note: Fascinating
collection of roundtable discussions held by the Paris Surrealists,
concerning the subject of sex. Participants include Andre Breton, Paul
Eluard, Benjamin Peret, Louis Aragon and Max Ernst, among many
others.
BOOKS ABOUT SURREALISM
History of the
Surrealist Movement
by Gerard Durozoi
University of Chicago
Press 2004
History of
Surrealism
by Maurice Nadeau
Belknap
Press 1989
Surrealism
by Patrick Waldberg
Thames & Hudson
1965
The Surrealists -
Revolutionaries in Art and Writing
Jemima Montagu
Tate
2002
Surreal
Lives
by Ruth Brandon
Grove Press
1999
Women Artists and the Surrealist
Movement
by Whitney Chadwick
Thames & Hudson
1991
Surrealism and Women
Edited by
Mary Ann Caws, Rudolf Keunzli & Gwen Raaberg
MIT Press
1991
COLLECTIONS OF SURREALIST
WRITING
The Random House Book of Twentieth Century
French Poetry
First Vintage Books 1982
Note: This book
may currently be out of print, but is worth searching for. It contains
poetry by many Surrealists, including Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, Benjamin
Peret, Louis Aragon, Robert Desnos, Antonin Artaud and Raymond Queneau,
among others.
Modern French Poets
Edited
by Wallace Fowlie
Dover Publishing 1955
Note: Anthology featuring
poems by Breton, Eluard and Desnos, among others.
The Poetry of Surrealism
Edited by Michael Benedikt
Little, Brown and Company 1974
Note:
Currently out of print, though used copies are out there. This anthology
contains poems by Breton, Aragon, Eluard, Peret, Artaud and Desnos, among
many others.
Surrealist Love Poems
Edited by Mary Ann Caws
The University of Chicago Press
2001
Note: Collection of surrealist poetry, featuring works by Breton,
Desnos, Eluard and Dali, among many others.
The Dadalus Books of Surrealism
Volume
1: The Identity of Things
Volume 2: The Myth of the
World
Dadalus Publishing 1993 & 1994
Note: Two anthologies
of prose by Surrealist writers.
The Surrealists Look at Art
Pontus Hulten 1990
Note: Anthology of articles by Eluard, Aragon,
Soupault, Breton and Tzara.
4 Dada Suicides
Atlas Press
1995
Note: Collection of writings by (and biographical information on)
Arthur Cravan, Jacques Rigaut, Julien Torma and Jacques Vache. It includes
Vache's War Letters to Andre Breton.
The Automatic Muse
A
Collection of Surrealist Novels
Atlas Press 1994
Note: This book
may currently be out of print, but is worth searching for. It contains
surrealist novels from the 1920s by Desnos, Limbour, Leiris and
Peret.
Modern French Theatre
Translated by Michael Benedikt & George E. Wellwarth
E.P.
Dutton 1966
Note: Out of print, but worth the search. It includes surrealist
plays by Breton & Soupault, Aragon, Daumal, Gilbert-Lecomte,
Desnos, Artaud and Vitrac, among others.
Encyclopedia Acephalica
Atlas Press 1995
Note: Features the Critical
Dictionary edited by Georges Bataille, as well as texts from
Documents (1929-30). Among the contributors are
Robert Desnos, Michel Leiris and Jacques Baron.
BOOKS BY INDIVIDUAL WRITERS
Contents: Louis Aragon, Antonin Artaud, Jacques Baron, Jacques-Andre Boiffard, Andre Breton, Luis Bunuel, Rene Char, Giorgio de Chirico, Rene Crevel Salvador Dali, Robert Desnos, Paul Eluard, Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour, E.L.T. Mesens, Max Morise, Paul Nogue, Benjamin Peret, Jacques Prevert, Raymond Queneau, Jacques Rigaut, Philippe Soupault, Tristan Tzara, Pierre Unik, Jacques Vache & Roger Vitrac. Other Writers Associated With Surrealism: Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Bataille, Rene Daumal, Roger Gilbert-Lecomte, Alfred Jarry, Comte de Lautreamont, Federico Garcia Lorca, Georges Neveux, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Raymond Roussel & Alberto Savinio.
Louis Aragon
The Adventures of Telemachus Exact Change 1988
The Libertine Calder Publications 1987
Irene's Cunt Creation Books 1996
Paris Peasant Exact Change 1994
Treatise on Style University of Nebraska Press 1991
Poet of the French Resistance Duell, Sloan & Pearce 1945
Antonin Artaud
Collected Works
Volume 1: Prose, Poetry & Letters
Volume 2: The Alfred Jarry Theatre
Volume 3: Scenarios on the Cinema, Interviews & Letters
Volume 4: The Cenci & Theatre Documents
Calder Publications 1974
Theatre
The Theatre and Its Double Grove Press 1994
Artaud on Theatre Methuen Drama 2001
Modern French Theatre E.P. Dutton 1966
(includes Artaud's short play Jet of Blood)
Prose
Selected Writings University of California Press 1988
Artaud Anthology City Lights Books 1965
Watchfiends & Rack Screams Exact Change 2004
50 Drawings to Murder Magic Seagull Books 2004
The Monk Creation Books 2003
Heliogabalus or The Crowned Anarchist Solar Books 2000
Jacques-Andre Boiffard
Surrealism by Patrick Waldberg (contains the preface to the first issue of La Revolution Surrealiste co-written by Boiffard)
Thames & Hudson 1965
Andre
Breton
Prose
Manifestos of Surrealism
University of Michigan Press 1969
The Automatic Message
Atlas Press 2001
Nadja
Grove Press 1960
Communicating Vessels
University of Nebraska Press 1990
Mad Love
University of Nebraska Press 1987
Arcanum 17
Sun and Moon Press 1994
Surrealism and Painting
MFA Publications 2002
Andre Breton Selected
Works
University of California Press
2003
Anthology of Black Humor City Lights Books
1997
The Lost Steps (a
collection of essays)
University of
Nebraska Press 1996
Break of Day University
of Nebraska Press 1999
Poetry
Poems of Andre
Breton
Black Widow Press 2006
Earthlight
Green Integer 2004
My Heart Through Which Her
Heart Has Passed
Alyscamps Press 2001
Biography
Conversations: The Autobiography of
Surrealism
Marlowe & Company 1993
Revolution of the Mind by
Mark Polizzotti Da Capo Press 1997
Luis
Bunuel
Prose
An Unspeakable
Betrayal (collection of prose)
University of California Press
2000
Autobiography
My Last
Sigh Vintage Books 1984
Objects of Desire (a book of
conversations with Buñuel)
Marsilio Publishers 1992
Film
Scripts
Un chein andalou & L'Age d'Or Lorrimer
Publishing 1969
Belle de Jour Lorrimer Publishing
1971
Tristana Lorrimer Publishing 1971
Two Films: The Exterminating Angel
and Los Olvidados
Lorrimer Publishing 1972
Rene Char
Selected Poems of
Rene Char New Directions 1992
This Smoke That Carried Us
White Pine Press 2004
Leaves of Hypnos Penguin 1973
Giorgio de Chirico
Hebdomeros & Other Writngs Exact
Change 2004
The Memoirs of Giorgio de Chirico Da Capo
1994
Note: There are also numerous books of de Chirico's art. Two recommendations are DE CHIRICO by Paolo Baldacci, published by Bulfinch Press, and Giorgio de Chirico by Pere Gimferrer, published by Rizzoli International Publications.
Rene
Crevel
Putting My Foot In It Dalkey Archive Press
1994
Difficult Death North Point Press 1986
Babylon
Sun and Moon Press 1996
My Body and I Archipelago Books
2005
Salvador Dali
Prose
Hidden
Faces Peter Owen Publishers 1973
OUI Writings 1927-1933
Exact Change 1998
The Collected Writings of Salvador Dalí
(spanning the 1920s to the 1970s) Cambridge University Press 1998
Autobiography
The Secret Life of
Salvador Dalí DASA Edicions, S.A. 1942
Diary of a Genius
Creation Books 1994
Open Letter to Salvador Dalí Heineman
Paperbacks 1967
The Unspeakable Confessions of Salvador Dalí
(as told to André Parinaud) Quartet Books
1977
Theory
Dali on Modern Art Dover
Publications 1996
Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship Dial
Press 1948
Robert Desnos
Prose
Liberty or
Love Atlas Press 1993
The Automatic Muse (contains Desnos's
automatic writing Mourning for Mourning) Atlas Press
1994
Poetry
Essential Poems and
Writings Black Widow Press 2007
Selected Poems The Ecco
Press 1991
The Voice of Robert Desnos: Selected Poems
1919-1944
Sheep Meadow 2005
Theatre
Modern French Theatre
(includes Desnos' play La Place De L'Etoile) E.P. Dutton
1966
Paul
Eluard
Prose
The Automatic Message
(includes The Immaculate Conception by Eluard & Breton)
Atlas Press
2001
Letters to Gala Paragon House 1989
Poetry
Selected Poems
Riverrun Press 1988
Capital of Pain
Black Widow Press 2006
Love, Poetry Black Widow Press
2007
Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard Black Widow Press
2006
Michel
Leiris
Prose
The Automatic
Muse (contains Leiris's The Cardinal Point )
Atlas
Press 1994Aurora Atlas Press 1990
Mirror of Tauromachy
Atlas Press 2007
Autobiography
The Rules
of the Game Volume 1: Scratches
Volume 2:
ScrapesJohns Hopkins University Press 1997
Manhood University Of
Chicago Press 1992
Nights as Day, Days as Night (Dreams)
Eridanos Press 1987
Correspondence: Georges Bataille and Michel
Leiris
Seagull Books 2008
Commentary
Operratics Green Integer 2001
Georges
Limbour
Four Stories Atlas Press 1995
The Automatic Muse (contains
Limbour's The Polar Child )
Atlas Press 1994
Paul Nogue
Works Selected by
Marcel Marien Atlas Press 1995
Benjamin
Peret
Prose
Death to the
Pigs
Atlas Press 1988
Mad Balls
Atlas Press 1991
The Automatic Muse (contains Peret's The
Elegant Ewe )
Atlas Press 1994
Poetry
From the Hidden Storehouse
Oberlin College 1981
A Marvelous World Louisiana State University
Press 1985
Jacques
Prevert
Selected Poems
Hearing Eye 2002
Paroles City
Lights Books 1990
Raymond Queneau
Odile
Dalkey Archive Press
1988
Pierrot Mon Ami Atlas Press 1988
The Skin of
Dreams Atlas Press 1987
Zazie in the Metro Penguin Classics
2001
The Blue Flowers New Directions Publishing
1985
Exercises in Style New Directions Publishing
1981
EyeSeas (Selected Poems) Black Widow Press
2008
Jacques Rigaut
Lord Patchogue & Other Texts Atlas Press 1993
4 Dada Suicides Atlas Press 1995
The Automatic Message (includes The Magnetic Fields by Soupault & Breton) Atlas Press 2001
Last Nights in Paris Exact Change 2004
I'm Lying - Selected Poetry Lost Roads 1985
Tristan
Tzara
Approximate Man and Other
Writings Black Widow Press
2005
Chanson
Dada: Selected Poems
Black Widow Press 2005
Seven Dada Manifestos and Lampisteries
Calder Publications 1981
Dada Performance
(contains 3 plays by Tzara) PAJ Publications 1987
Pierre
Unik
The Dedalus Book of Surrealism: The Identity of
Things (contains Unik's Long Live the Bride!) Dedalus
1993
Jacques
Vache
Letters from the
Front Atlas Press
1993
Jacques Vache and the Roots of Surrealism (including
War Letters
and other writings) Charles H. Kerr
2008
Roger
Vitrac
Modern French Theatre (includes Vitrac's The
Mysteries of Love)
E.P. Dutton 1966
Other Writers Associated With
Surrealism
Guillame Apollinaire
Prose
The Eleven Thousand
Rods Solar Books 2007
Amorous Exploits Of A Young Rakehell
Olympia 2004
The Poet Assassinated Carcanet Publishing
1985
Apollinaire on Art MFA Publications
2001
Poetry
Selected Writings
(primarily poetry) New Directions 1971
Apollinaire: Selected
Poems Anvil Press Poetry 1986
Calligrammes University of
California Press 2004
Alcools: Poems Wesleyan
1995
Bestiary: Or the Parade of Orpheus David R Godine
2000
The Self-Dismembered Man (Late Poems) Wesleyan
2004
Apollinaire Everyman's Poetry 2000
Georges Bataille
Prose
Story of the
Eye City Lights 1977
Blue of Noon Marion Boyars
Publishers 2002
L'Abbe C Marion Boyars Publishers
2001
The Tears of Eros City Lights 1989
Guilty
Lapis Press 1986
The Impossible City Lights 1991
The
Mother, Madame Edwarda & The Dead Man
Marion Boyars Publishers
1995
Poetry
Collected Poems Dufour
Editions 1998
Philosophy, Theory &
Criticism
The Bataille Reader Wiley-Blackwell
1997
The Accursed Share - Vol. 1 Zone Books 1991
The
Accursed Share - Vols. 2 and 3 Zone Books 1993
Inner
experience State University of New York Press 1988
Eroticism,
Death & Sensuality City Lights 1986
Theory of
Religion Zone Books 1992
Literature and Evil Marion
Boyars Publishers 2001
The Absence of Myth: Writings on Surrealism
Verso 2006
Trial of Gilles De Rais Amok Books
1991
On Nietzsche Continuum International Publishing
2004
Visions of Excess: Selected Writings,
1927-1939
University of Minnesota Press 1985
The Unfinished
System Of Nonknowledge
University of Minnesota Press
2004
Journals edited by
Bataille
Encyclopedia Acephalica Atlas Press
1995
Rene Daumal
Mount
Analogue Gerald Duckworth & Co 2005
A
Night of Serious Drinking
Overlook Publishing 2003
The
Powers of the Word: Selected Essays and Notes
City Lights 1991
Rasa: Or Knowledge of the Self
Ekstasis Editions 2004
Modern French Drama
(includes Daumal's play En Gggarrde )
E.P.
Dutton 1966
Roger
Gilbert-Lecomte
Black Mirror: Selected
Poems Station Hill 1991
Alfred Jarry
Prose
Selected Works of Alfred
Jarry Grove Press 1965
Messalina Atlas Press
1985
Visits of Love Atlas Press 1993
Days and Nights
Atlas Press 1989
Caesar Antichrist Atlas Press 1992
The
Garden of Priapus Fredonia Books 2003
The Supermale W W
Norton & Co 1977
Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll,
Pataphysician
Exact Change 1996
Collected
Works
Collected Works I: Adventures in
'Pataphysics
(includes Caesar Antichrist, Black
Minutes Of Memorial Sand and How To Construct A Time Machine,
among others) Atlas Press 2001
Collected Works II: Three
Early Novels
(includes Days and Nights, Absolute Love
and Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll, Pataphysician) Atlas
Press 2007
Drama
The Ubu Plays Grove
Press 1968
King Turd (Ubu Plays) Boar's Head Books
1953
The Antliaclasts Atlas
Press 1994
Comte de
Lautreamont
Maldoror and the Complete Works of the
Comte de Lautreamont
Exact Change 2004
Maldoror and Poems
Penguin Classics 1988
Maldoror translated by Guy Wernham New
Directions Publishing 1965
Federico Garcia
Lorca
Poetry
Poet in New York
The Noon Press 1988
Selected Verse
The Noon Press 1989
Collected Poems
Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1988
The Selected Poems of Federico Garcia
Lorca
New Directions 1955
Poem of the
Deep Song City Lights 1987
Drama
Once Five Years Pass and other dramatic
works
Station Hill Press 1986
The Public
and Play Without a Title
New Directions 1983
The Rural Trilogy (Blood Wedding, Yerma &
Bernardo Alba)
Bantam Books
1987
Plays (3 Volumes)
Methuen 1990
The Unknown Federico Garcia Lorca Atlas Press 1996
Prose
Barbarous Nights
City Lights 1991
In Search of Duende
New Directions 1998
Selected Letters New Directions
1983
Biography
Federico Garcia Lorca - A Life
by Ian Gibson Pantheon Books
1989
The Assassination
of Federico Garcia Lorca by Ian Gibson
Penguin
Publishing 1983
Lorca - A Dream of Life by Leslie Stainton Farrar
Straus & Giroux
1999
Georges
Ribemont-Dessaignes
Dada Performance (includes The Mute Canary)
PAJ 1987
The Myth of the World (Carmen & Carmen)
Dedalus 1994
Raymond Roussel
Impressions of Africa John
Calder/Riverrun Press 1983
Locus Solus John Calder/Riverrun
Press 1984
Selections From Certain of His Books Atlas Press
1991
How I Wrote Certain Of My Books Exact Change
2005
Life, Death & Works (essays about Roussel) Atlas Press
1987
Alberto Savinio
The Lives of the Gods Atlas Press 1991
Speaking
to Clio Marlboro Press 1987
Capri Marlboro Press
1990
Tragedy of Childhood Marlboro Press 1991
Operatic
Lives Marlboro Press
1988
CHECK
OUT
OUR LATEST SURREALIST RECOMMENDATION!
SANCTUS FUMIGACI
a collection of
Surrealist
Plays
Click on the below
image to learn
more!
"Bash is one of the few contemporary
playwrights who captures the spirit of surrealism. In fact, surrealist
figures from the past, such as Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali and Paul Eluard,
appear as characters in a couple of his plays. Dream-like, funny, and
sometimes disturbing, SANCTUS FUMIGACI (which, in English, loosely
translates to "Holy Smoke") is recommended for fans of avant garde
literature and experimental theater."