| 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
.
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
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
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."
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