The secret life of Belgian Surrealist poet Mimi Hamoir is revealed in this shocking, macabre, and erotic compilation. Profusely illustrated with rare photos and ephemera from her hidden archive — compiled and translated by Lono Taggers — this collector’s edition is a must-have for fans of surrealism, the avant-garde, and vampirism.
Take a deep dive into Belgian Surrealism and Paul Delvaux in this special edition.
This extraordinary catalogue features full color reproductions of never-before-seen paintings, with specifications and background details on each work. It includes the original clandestine “Surrealist Map of Belgium” (with annotations), plus rare documents and archival photographs restored to their original glory.
Lono Taggers has spent years compiling this faux edition, scouring secondhand bookshops in Brussels and Paris—tracking down reclusive collectors and hostile connoisseurs—breaking into archives and bribing greedy relatives of Paul Delvaux.
Black Scat Books has spared no expense in bringing to light these exceedingly rare paintings and historic Surrealist documents.
CLICK HERE and order your copy now.
We are thrilled to present our first book of 2025 – THE VIRTUOSO PARROT & OTHER STORIES.
Claude-Sosthène Grasset d’Orcet (1828-1900) wrote startling articles and stories about secret societies, hidden bloodlines, and his own idiosyncratic views of history. His obsession with finding puns and rebuses, in both ancient inscriptions and modern speech, influenced generations of occultists and was the inspiration for the “language of the birds” expounded by the enigmatic Fulcanelli.
This book is Grasset d’Orcet’s first appearance in English! It contains five of his odd short stories, a contemporary obituary, and detailed notes on his ideas and allusions.
At last, the virtuoso parrot speaks to English readers!
Where else would you meet this cast of luminaries….
Alphonse Allais; mIEKAL aND; Terry Bradford; Steve Carll; Norman Conquest; Lynn Crawford; Noël Devaulx; Mark DuCharme; Albert Ehrenstein; Shawn Garrett; Edward Gauvin; Richard Huelsenbeck; Iliazd; Mark Kanak; Thomas J. Kitson; Amy Kurman; Jean Lorrain; Emilia Loseva; Marcel Mariën; Willy Melnikov; Raymond Roussel; Heather Sager; Phil Demise Smith; Doug Skinner; Paul Willems; Cynthia Yatchman.
151 pp., trade paperback; $20
We are elated, delirious, tickled, thrilled, and ecstatic to announce the 16th volume in our acclaimed Alphonse Allais Collection. This first English translation of Allais’s Pour cause de fin de bail has been exquisitely prepared and introduced (with notes on the text) by master translator Doug Skinner.
This wickedly amusing collection contains fifty-three absurdist tales—packed with phantom limbs, floating brothels, tapeworms, ostrich shoes, and other remarkable things. It makes a jolly beach read, or to browse in your hammock whilst sipping a cool glass of lemonade—or better yet, a jug of absinthe.
So, if you haven’t already begun gathering your personal Allais collection—shame on you!—now is the time to start. Scroll down and you’ll find unadulterated links to each edition for convenient purchasing.
Happy Summer!
Le propriétaire
My Rent Is Due!
Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks
Selected Plays of Alphonse Allais
THE STORY BEHIND ONE OF THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL NOVELS OF THE 20TH CENTURY
A richly detailed look at Histoire d’o from its original publication in 1954 to the present. Author Reese Saxment situates O in the cultural, literary and political world of Paris during the decade after liberation, and explores how the novel is informed by Surrealist thinking, and can be read as a Surrealist text. Story of O: Eros, Paris & Surrealism is scintillating literary scholarship that breathes new life into this groundbreaking novel.
In 1954 a controversial book was published in Paris – Story of O, by ‘Pauline Réage’ – the first truly erotic novel by a woman writer in modern times – a distinction for which it has been both celebrated and condemned ever since.
The Paris in which Story of O appeared was a city simultaneously in the throes of political crisis and brilliant cultural revival. As it struggled to recover after the Second World War, the onset of the Cold War polarised French politics into power-blocs of the right and the Communist left. But between these poles a renaissance of literary and philosophical movements flourished, all conscious of the need for a ‘Third Way’.
Prominent in this renaissance was a revitalized interest in érotisme noir, Existentialism, Feminine Humanism, and new waves in psychoanalysis, Surrealism and mysticism. It was in this cultural resurgence that Story of O was written and published. The woman who masqueraded as ‘Pauline Réage’ was herself a figure of considerable significance in the French literary world, and her novel provides a touchstone for all of the cultural movements thriving in Paris at the time – particularly Surrealism.
Ever since, in the continuing struggle between life, love and liberty, and suppression, prohibition and censorship, Story of O still lights a way forward toward freedom of imagination, expression and desire.
Story of O: Eros, Paris & Surrealism
Reese Saxment
Trade paperback; 418 pp., Illustrated; $16.95
ISBN 979-8-9894330-1-8
available worldwide on Amazon
“…Reese Saxment’s Story of O: Eros, Paris & Surrealism is model of cultural history and literary studies: broad in his scope, intelligent and even-handed in his assessment, and entertaining in his retailing, to boot.” —THE BOOK BEAT
NEW REVIEW BY STEFAN PRINCE
“All in all, this is a thoroughly researched, full, and dare I say, formidable book. All praise to Saxment and Black Scat for managing to publish the book in the summer of Story of O’s first appearance 70 years ago this month. It deserves full praise, a hard cover and a wide readership.”
CLICK HERE to read the full review
“Reese Saxment’s Story of O: Eros, Paris & Surrealism is an excellent work of historical and cultural research, telling not merely the story of how a dirty book came to be published but providing crucial contextual evidence and assessment about the larger political-historical events that shaped Story of O’s ethical concerns, as well as its longer-term effects and the ways in which it continues to be plumbed by scholars for its psychological depths.”
—Tom Bowden, The Book Beat
CLICK HERE to read the full review
“I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it to be extremely thought-provoking.
The historical, cultural and surrealistic context is superbly researched and encyclopedic in its scope. The section on feminism is particularly good.” —Tracy Thursfield
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”… a detailed adventure and a mesmerizing read.”
— John Welson
In war there is only one winner...
Scheduled for publication in 1917, this illustrated text was banned in France for its antiwar and anti-military—(dare we say pro-rat)—stance. Thus, Descaves’ incendiary little chapbook did not appear until 1920, when the censors finally waved their white flag and surrendered to reality.
Alas, THE RAT WINS! is a potent work of black humor which will remain relevant as long as humans walk the earth.
Read it in peace.
THE RAT WINS!
Lucien Descaves
Illustrations by Lucien Laforge
Translated from the French by Doug Skinner
Chapbook; 41 pp.; $12; ISBN 979-8989433063
Absurdist Texts & Documents #47
FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Lucien Descaves (1861-1949) was a prolific novelist, journalist, and playwright, and a constant activist for anarchism and pacifism. His antimilitary novel Sous-Offs (Non-Coms), published in 1889, earned him and his publisher arrests for insulting the army and offending morals. He was a founding member of the Académie Goncourt and the utopian community la Clairière de Vaux, and the literary executor of J.-K. Huysmans. His autobiography, Souvenirs d’un ours (Memoirs of a Bear), was published in 1946.
Lucien Laforge (1889-1954) contributed cartoons and illustrations to many periodicals, particularly for the anarchist press. He was uncompromising and often destitute; he was discharged twice in World War I after feigning insanity. His books include illustrations for Rabelais, Perrault, and Baudelaire, as well as his alphabet Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz (1924).
Doug Skinner has translated many wonderful books for Black Scat Books, Wakefield Press, Corps Reviver, and Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks, as well as contributing to the Fortean Times, Nickelodeon, Cabinet, and other fine magazines. His latest book of short stories is The Potato Farm, from Black Scat.
We are proud to present this extraordinary blend of fiction, myth, dream and memory – filled with haunting literary pleasures.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR A FASHION DICTIONARY
“A Fashion Dictionary is a literary masterwork in which Gaurav Monga firmly and clearly displays his enviable talents, and marks him as a writer to be reckoned with. Make no mistake, the entries he has written are alive with story. Monga’s impressive ability to find and firmly entrench story in the terms, phrases and articles of clothing he references is a literary feat worth noting, and admiring.”
—Jason E. Rolfe, author of Invisible Influences and The Puppet-Play of Doctor Gall
“A subtle and deft exploration not only of fashion but of everything fashion rubs up against: identity, selfhood, desire, death. Monga strikes a very delicate balance in this dictionary that both is and isn’t a dictionary, sliding from the descriptive to the narrative and back again, creating a pattern as elegant as a spider’s web draped quivering and fragile over the tips of one’s fingers.” —Brian Evenson
“What a little gem of a book for anyone who uses clothes or words, but especially for those who are used to reading and writing about fashion, as it offers a respite from the tired and familiar narratives of both academic fashion theory and fashion journalism. It manages to “make strange” the most familiar and mundane items like ankle socks, buttons and hair bands; it gives body, sensuality and a defiant flair to Pathani suits and Phirans; it endows neck ties with an eerie sensibility. Oscillating between fact and dream, real and imaginary spacetimes and histories, literary and fashion references, it perpetually keeps the reader on their toes and trains us to (sometimes anxiously) question the agencies and agendas of everyday objects whose close proximity to us usually allow them to remain unnoticed.”
–Jana Melkumova-Reynolds, cultural sociologist
“Highly recommended!”
—Seb Emina, READ ME
A Fashion Dictionary
Gaurav Monga
151 pp., $14.95
ISBN 979-8989433032
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Gaurav Monga is a writer and teacher originally from New Delhi. He is the author of Tears for Rahul Dutta (Philistine Press, 2012), Family Matters (Eibonvale Press, 2019), Ruins (Desirepath Publishers, 2019), Costumes of the Living (Snuggly Books, 2020), My Father, The Watchmaker (Hawakal Publishers, 2020), The English Teacher (Raphus Press, 2021) and Raju and Kishore (Raphus Press, 2022). His work has appeared in numerous literary magazines, including B O D Y, Fanzine, Dismantle and Vestoj. He is a regular contributor to Outlook India.
After years of exhaustive field work amongst “the others” and a deep-dive into the primary literature of the tribe, the author here offers – for the first time – new tools to assist the reader in complicating their lives and excavating their souls.
“Terrible advice, artfully told.” – Larry McCaffery, author of Lit-Crit.
PEOPLE TO AVOID
Jim McMenamin
Absurdist Texts & Documents No. 46
112 pp., $12
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim McMenamin is a writer and self-care Guru stationed in Southern California.
Pihla, a beautiful journalist from Helsinki, is on an assignment to cover subterranean sex scenes across Europe. Although detached from the decadence she witnesses, Pihla needs a respite, and checks into the Grand Hotel Vittoria in the hills of Tuscany. And then she meets Giovanni…
The 27th volume in our collectible Pocket Erotica series is a sensual work of contemporary fiction by Nina Ansani. Warm up your holiday and visit the Grand Hotel Vittoria.
blackscatbooks.com 