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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
.
The authors have been arranged in the
approximate chronological order of their involvement in the
Surrealist Movement. Additional writers,
who are often associated with Surrealism,
are included at the end of the list.
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
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
The
authors are presented in the following order: Jacques Vache, Andre Breton, Louis
Aragon, Philippe Soupault, Paul
Eluard, Benjamin Peret, Robert
Desnos, Antonin Artaud, Roger
Vitrac, Jacques Rigaut, Rene
Crevel, Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour, Raymond
Queneau, Jacques
Prevert, Jacques-Andre
Boiffard, Giorgio de
Chirico, Rene Char, Salvador Dali, Luis
Bunuel, Federico Garcia
Lorca, Pierre Unik, Paul Nogue, Comte de
Lautreamont,
Tristan
Tzara, Rene Daumal, Roger
Gilbert-Lecomte and Georges Bataille
.
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
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
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
Philippe
Soupault
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
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
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
Robert
Desnos
Liberty or Love Atlas Press 1993 The Automatic Muse (contains
Desnos' Mourning for Mourning
) Atlas Press
1994 Essential Poems and Writings
Black Widow Press 2007 Selected Poems
The Ecco Press 1991 Modern French Theatre (includes
Desnos' play La Place De L'Etoile)
E.P. Dutton 1966
Antonin
Artaud
The Theatre and Its Double Grove Press 1994 Selected Writings
University of California Press 1988 Artaud
Anthology
City Lights Books 1965 Heliogabalus or The Crowned Anarchist
Solar Books 2007 Watchfiends & Rack Screams
Exact Change 2004 The Monk
Creation Books 2003 Artaud on Theatre
Methuen Drama 2001 Modern
French Theatre (includes
Artaud's play Jet of Blood )
E.P. Dutton
1966 Collected Works
Calder Publications 1974
Volume 1: Prose, Poetry & Letters
Volume 2: The Alfred Jarry Theatre
Volume 3: Scenarios on the Cinema, Interviews
& Letters
Volume 4: The Theatre and Its Double, The Cenci
& Theatre Docu- ments
Roger
Vitrac
Modern French Theatre (includes Vitrac's The
Mysteries of Love)
E.P. Dutton 1966
Jacques
Rigaut
Lord Patchogue & Other
Texts Atlas Press 1993 4 Dada
Suicides Atlas Press
1995
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
Michel
Leiris
Aurora Atlas Press 1990 The Automatic Muse (contains Leiris' The
Cardinal Point )
Atlas Press 1994 The
Rules of the Game
The Johns Hopkins University Press 1997 Manhood University Of Chicago Press
1992 Nights as Day, Days as Night
Eridanos Press 1987 Operratics
Green Integer 2001 Mirror of Tauromachy
Atlas Press 2007
Georges
Limbour
Four Stories Atlas Press 1995 The Automatic Muse (contains
Limbour's The Polar Child )
Atlas Press 1994
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 Corporation 1985 Exercises in Style New
Directions Publishing Corporation 1981
Jacques
Prevert
Selected Poems
Hearing Eye 2002 Paroles City Lights Books
1990
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
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
Char
Selected Poems of Rene
Char New Directions 1992 This Smoke That
Carried Us
White Pine Press 2004 Leaves
of Hypnos Penguin 1973
Salvador
Dali
The Secret Life of Salvador
Dali DASA Edicions,
S.A. 1942 Diary of a
Genius
Creation Books 1994 Open Letter to
Salvador Dali
Heineman Paperbacks 1967 Hidden Faces
Peter Owen Publishers 1973 OUI Writings 1927-1933
Exact Change 1998 Dali on Modern Art
Dover Publications 1996 Fifty Secrets of Magic
Craftsmanship
Dial Press 1948 The
Unspeakable Confessions of Salvador Dali Quartet Books 1977
Note: Of course, there is also a vast number of books
featuring Dali's art. Recommended are the two volume Taschen set by Robert
Descharnes and Gilles Neret, as well as Salvador Dali's Dream of
Venus , which contains photographs of Dali's Surrealist Funhouse at
the 1939 World's Fair.
Luis
Bunuel
An Unspeakable Betrayal
University of California Press
2000 My
Last Sigh
Vintage Books 1984 Objects of
Desire
(a book of conversations with Bunuel) MarsilioPublishers
1992 Luis Bunuel A Critical
Biography by Francisco Aranda
Da
Capo Press 1985 Bunuel A Biography
by John Baxter Fourth Estate 1994 Bunuel 100 Years (excellent book on Bunuel's
films with numerous pho- tographs) The Museum of Modern Art
2000
Note: Several of Bunuel's film scripts have also been
published by the Federick Ungar Publishing Company.
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
Pierre
Unik
The Dedalus Book of Surrealism: The Identity of
Things (contains Unik's Long Live the Bride!) Dedalus
1993
Paul
Nogue
Works Selected by Marcel Marien Atlas
Press 1995
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
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
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
Georges
Bataille
Story of the Eye City Lights 1977 Blue of Noon
Marion Boyars Publishers 2002 Inner Experience
State University of New York Press 1988 The
Accursed Share - Vol. 1
Zone Books 1991 The
Accursed Share - Vols. 2 and 3
Zone Books 1993 L'Abbe C Marion
Boyars Publishers 2001 Eroticism, Death & Sensuality
City Lights 1986 Literature and Evil
Marion Boyars Publishers 2001 The Tears of Eros
City Lights 1989 The Impossible
City Lights 1991 The Mother, Madame Edwarda &
The Dead Man
Marion Boyars Publishers
1995 Theory of Religion
Zone Books 1992 Trial of Gilles De Rais
Amok Books 1991 The Unfinished System Of Nonknowledge
University of Minnesota Press 2004 Visions of
Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939
University of Minnesota
Press 1985 On Nietzsche
Continuum International Publishing Group 2004 The Absence of Myth:
Writings on Surrealism
Verso 2006 Collected Poems
Dufour Editions 1998 Encyclopedia Acephalica Atlas Press
1995
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