ARTBOOK | D.A.P.

Two early modernist classics in new translations
“The serene and gentle amazement with which [Scheerbart] tells
of the strange natural laws of other worlds . . . makes him one of
those humorists who, like Lichtenberg or Jean Paul, seem never
to forget that the earth is a heavenly body.” —Walter Benjamin
The Book of Monelle
By Marcel Schwob.
wAkefIeLd Press
When marcel Schwob published The Book of Monelle in French in 1894, it immediately became the unofficial bible of the
French Symbolist movement, admired by such contemporaries as Stéphane mallarmé, alfred Jarry and andré gide. a
carefully woven assemblage of legends, aphorisms, fairy tales and nihilistic philosophy, it remains a deeply enigmatic
and haunting work more than a century later, a gathering of literary and personal ruins written in a style that evokes both
the Brothers grimm and Friedrich nietzsche. The Book of Monelle was the result of Schwob’s intense emotional suffering
over the loss of his love, a “girl of the streets” named Louise, whom he had befriended in 1891 and who succumbed to
tuberculosis two years later. transforming her into the innocent prophet of destruction, monelle, Schwob tells the stories
of her various sisters: girls succumbing to disillusionment, caught between the misleading world of childlike fantasy and
the bitter world of reality. this new translation reintroduces a true fin-de-siècle masterpiece into english.
a secret influence on generations of writers, from guillaume apollinaire and Jorge Luis Borges to roberto Bolaño, Marcel
Schwob (1867–1905) was as versed in the street slang of medieval thieves as he was in the poetry of Walt Whitman (whom
he translated into French). paul valéry and alfred Jarry both dedicated their first books to him, and he was the uncle of
Surrealist photographer Claude Cahun.
978-0-9841155-8-7
pbk, 4.5 x 7 in. / 136 pgs / 2 b&w.
U.S. $12.95 CDn $12.95
november/Literature
Lesabéndio
An Asteroid Novel
By Paul Scheerbart.
wAkefIeLd Press
First published in german in 1913 and widely considered to be paul Scheerbart’s masterpiece, Lesabéndio is an intergalactic
utopian novel that describes life on the planetoid pallas, where rubbery suction-footed life forms with telescopic
eyes smoke bubble-weed in mushroom meadows under violet skies and green stars. amid the conveyor-belt highways
and lighthouses weaving together the mountains and valleys, a visionary named Lesabéndio hatches a plan to build a
44-mile-high tower and employ architecture to connect the two halves of their double star. a cosmic ecological fable,
Scheerbart’s novel was admired by such architects as Bruno taut and Walter gropius, and such thinkers as Walter Benjamin
and gershom Scholem (whose wedding present to Benjamin was a copy of Lesabéndio). Benjamin had intended
to devote the concluding section of his lost manuscript “the true politician” with a discussion of the positive political
possibilities embedded in Scheerbart’s “asteroid novel.” as translator Christina Svendsen writes in her introduction,
“Lesabéndio helps us imagine an ecological politics more daring than the conservative politics of preservation, even as
it reminds us that we are part of a larger galactic set of interrelationships.” this volume includes alfred Kubin’s illustrations
from the original german edition.
Paul Scheerbart (1863–1915) was a novelist, playwright, poet, newspaper critic, draftsman, visionary, proponent of glass
architecture and would-be inventor of perpetual motion, who wrote fantastical fables and interplanetary satires that were
to influence expressionist authors and the german Dada movement, and which helped found german science fiction.
978-0-9841155-9-4
pbk, 6 x 9 in. / 232 pgs / 16 b&w.
U.S. $15.95 CDn $15.95
December/Literature
Also Available:
The Perpetual Motion Machine
9780984115549
Pbk, u.s. $12.95 Cdn $12.95
wakefield Press
“The most perfect pages . . . the most simple and the most religiously
profound it has been given me to read. . . .” —Maurice Maeterlinck
Back in Stock!
Composition
in Retrospect
By John Cage.
exACT ChAnGe
Written in his characteristic “mesostics”
(lines of prose poetry linked by a
central vertical acrostic), Composition
in Retrospect is a statement of methodology
in which composer John Cage
examines the central issues of his
work: indeterminacy, imitation, variable
structure and contingency. Finished
only shortly before his death in
1992, Composition in Retrospect completes
the documentation of Cage’s
thought that began with his classic
book Silence (1961), but it is an introduction
and invitation to his work as
much as a summary or conclusion.
also included in this volume (at Cage’s
request) is “themes and variations,” a
piece written in 1982 about friends and
heroes such as Jasper Johns, Buckminster
Fuller, marcel Duchamp and erik
Satie. together these pieces form a
book that is both a testament to the
artists Cage admired and a clear statement
of his own ars poetica.
978-1-878972-11-8
pbk, 8 x 6 in. / 184 pgs.
U.S. $15.95 CDn $15.95
available/music
Also Available:
John Cage: every day is a
Good day
9781853322839
Pbk, u.s. $30.00 Cdn $30.00
hayward Publishing
Back in Stock!
The Hearing
Trumpet
By Leonora Carrington.
exACT ChAnGe
Introduction by helen byatt.
Leonora Carrington (1917–2011), the
distinguished British-born Surrealist
painter who made her home in mexico
City, was also a writer of extraordinary
imagination and charm, and The Hearing
Trumpet is perhaps her best loved
book. It tells the story of 92-year-old
marian Leatherby, who is given the gift
of a hearing trumpet only to discover
that her family has been plotting to
have her committed to an institution.
But this is an institution where the
buildings are shaped like birthday
cakes and igloos, where the Winking
abbess and the Queen Bee reign, and
where the gateway to the underworld is
wide open. It is also the scene of a
mysterious murder. occult twin to
Alice in Wonderland, The Hearing
Trumpet is a classic of fantastic literature
that has been translated and celebrated
throughout the world.
978-1-878972-19-4
pbk, 6 x 8 in. / 224 pgs.
U.S. $15.95 CDn $15.95
September/Literature
Elizabeth Bishop:
Objects &
Apparitions
TIbor de nAGY GALLerY
Text by Joelle biele, dan Chiasson,
Lloyd schwartz.
today established as one of the twentieth
century’s most important poets,
elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) was also a
gifted artist and collector of art and artifacts,
many of which were collected
from her years in Brazil. Objects and
Apparitions explores for the first time
Bishop’s art: her delicate, miniaturist
watercolors and gouaches of domestic
vignettes; her tenderly fabricated, Cornell-esque
constructions; and several
works of art from her own collection,
including family portraits and a bird
cage modeled on a medieval cathedral.
many of these are reproduced here for
the first time in full color, alongside
poems, archival photographs and essays
by Bishop scholars Joelle Biele,
Dan Chiasson and Lloyd Schwartz that
discuss Bishop’s art and its relationship
to her poetry. published for a critically
acclaimed show at tibor de nagy
gallery, this handsomely produced volume
shows Bishop’s visual instincts to
be as flawlessly poised and exquisite as
her poetical sensibility.
978-1-891123-02-3
Hbk, 8 x 9.75 in. / 48 pgs / 25 color /
5 b&w.
U.S. $35.00 CDn $35.00
July/Literature/art
Invented Symbols
An Art Autobiography
By Alex Katz.
ChArTA/CoLbY CoLLeGe MuseuM
of ArT
edited by vincent katz, Phong bui.
foreword by sharon Corwin.
Invented Symbols is alex Katz’s memoir
of his education in art. Katz’s story
begins with his parents, russian emigrés
involved in theater, and discusses
everything from his finding a high
school that offered the possibility of
drawing from antique casts, to his acceptance
at the Cooper Union, his decision
to become a fine artist and
beyond. Katz has always steeped himself
in the literature of his time, having
often painted and collaborated with
poets, and it is no surprise that his take
on autobiography should be particularly
considered and original in its
composition: the entire text of Invented
Symbols is in fact a transcription
of the artist recounting his
memories aloud, typed up by his son,
poet vincent Katz. this book revises
and expands upon the 1997 Hatje
Cantz edition, long out of print.
978-88-8158-840-4
pbk, 5.75 x 8.5 in. / 112 pgs / 108 b&w.
U.S. $29.95 CDn $29.95
September/art/nonfiction & Criticism
Also Available:
Alex katz: new York
9788881586349
hbk, u.s. $45.00
Cdn $45.00
Charta/Irish Museum
of Modern Art
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