Category: French literature

11 is HEAVEN

IN THIS ISSUE: Alphonse Allais; Terry Bradford; Norman Conquest; Lynn Crawford; John Dee; S. C. Delaney; Luc Fierens; Shawn Garrett; Edward Gauvin; Paulette Hampton; Isidore Isou; Ben D. Jaeger; Paul Kavanagh; Amy Kurman; Joel Lipman; George MacLennan; André Pieyre de Mandiargues; Marcel Mariën; Sean G. Meggeson; Thomas Owen; Angelo Pastormerlo; Agnès Potier; Bernard Quiriny; Paul Rosheim; Alberto Savinio; Doug Skinner; Corinne Taunay; Michel Vachey; and D. Harlan Wilson.

Featuring

  • SUBTERRANEAN ART SHARDS
  • “PAPA BACH”
  • MARCEL MARIEN’S “AUTOPORTRAIT”
  • LUC FIERENS COLLAGES
  • D. HARLAN WILSON SPECULATIVE FICTION
  • “ISOU: THE JAMES DEAN OF LETTRISM”
  • JAEGER ON “THE RITES OF ECSTASY

PLUS new translations of André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Michel Vachey, Alberto Savinio, Alphonse Allais, Bernard Quiriny, & Thomas Owen.

TYPO: The International Journal of Prototypes #11
154 pp., trade paperback; $20
ISBN 979-8-9923826-8-6

ISOU ROCKS!

The James Dean of Lettrism is back in this disruptive chapbook. The spirit of Dada lives in Doug Skinner’s first English translation of Considérations sur la mort et l’enterrement de Tristan Tzara—originally unleashed in 2012 in a limited Black Scat edition of 50 copies. Here Isou recounts his bizarre and humorous behavior at Tristan Tzara’s funeral in France.

Isidore Isou, the founder of the artistic movement Lettrism, was a great admirer of the Dadaist Tristan Tzara. So, when Tzara died in 1963, Isou disrupted the funeral to give the great provocateur a properly raucous sendoff. Isou’s lively account of the proceedings is both a polemic against traditional funerals and a warm declaration of his affection and admiration for Tzara.

Isou reading

PUMPING IRONY

In this issue we’re pleased to present the first English translation of a novelette by the surrealist writer André Pieyre de Mandiargues. You’ll also find previously unavailable translations from a diverse selection of neglected avant-garde literary masters like Marcel Schneider, Bernard Quiriny, Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando, Walter Serner, and others. While these writings range from baroque to fantastic, from dada to surrealism and back, together they helped populate modern literary art.

TYPO #10: The International Journal of Prototypes
Trade paperback, 158 pp., $20
ISBN 979-8-9923826-6-2 

Poèmes phonétiques; DADA; Surrealism, visual poetry; fantasy; Lettrism; experimental fiction.

IN THIS ISSUE: Chiara Ambrosio; Tim Newton Anderson; Terry Bradford; Shawn Garrett; Edward Gauvin; Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando; Thibault Jacquot-Paratte; Mark Kanak; Amy Kurman; André Pieyre de Mandiargues; George MacLennan; Frank Nims; Giambattista Palatino; Angelo Pastormerlo; Maurice Pons; Mirtha Pozzi; Bernard Quiriny; Jason E. Rolfe; Marcel Schneider; Walter Serner; Doug Skinner; Phil Demise Smith; Lono Taggers; Corinne Taunay; Gregory Wallace.

TYPO 10 — an instant collector’s item. Available worldwide.

To order outside the USA, click on your flag:

CA

Dig in!

Alphonse Allais’s collected stories were published in eleven volumes between 1892 and 1902. He called these books his “Anthumous Works.” With the publication of Feeding Time, Black Scat has now issued all of them—all first English translations by Doug Skinner.

Our stellar, 17-volume Alphonse Allais Collection is now complete and includes six additional volumes: Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks; The Blaireau Affair, Allais’s only novel; Selected Plays of Alphonse Allais; I Am Sarcey, his stories featuring Francisque Sarcey; Alphonse Allais’s Masks: Deluxe Special Edition. (an illustrated version of one of his stories); and our sampler, The Alphonse Allais Reader.

If you haven’t discovered France’s greatest humorist, dig in!

FEEDING TIME
Alphonse Allais
Translated by Doug Skinner
Paperback; 168 pp.; $14.95
ISBN 979-8-9923826-4-8 

TYPO #9: A Fusion of Avant-Garde Literature

Like a robot assembled in a subterranean laboratory, this issue contains prototypical pieces from around the world. Many contributors were previously seen in so-called Obscure Publications. Others have been freshly translated from rare French, Belgian, and Russian books and magazines. Some authors are well-known in avant-garde or fantasy circles. Some artists & writers are just breaking through. But all have been brought together to create this sublime issue for your pleasure.

FEATURING: Alphonse Allais; Chiara Ambrosio; Robert Archambeau; Pierre Bettencourt;  Greg Boyd; Terry Bradford; H.V. Chao; Norman Conquest; Lynn Crawford; Caroline Crépiat; R J Dent; Mark Ducharme;  Jean-Luc Garneau; Edward Gauvin; Vasilisk Gnedov; Kirpal Gordon; Michael Gould; André Hardellet; Jordan Jones; Amy Kurman;  Joel Lipman; Emilia Loseva; Stephen-Paul Martin; George MacLennan; Henri Michaux; Claudio Parentela;  Angelo Pastormerlo; Gabriel & Marcel Piqueray; Bernard Quiriny; Doug Skinner; Renée Vivien; Danny Winkler; Bill Wolak.

TYPO #9: The International Journal of Prototypes
152 pp., trade paperback; $20
ISBN 979-8-9923826-0-0

It’s a bird… !

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!

It must be fate, 8 is great…

Reach for quick relief with TYPO #8, a timely remedy for your anxiety and depression. Bring feelings of joy back into your life with its mixture of fictions, poems and artworks from different times and countries. Also it’s a perfect holiday gift for the connoisseurs in your family.

PACKED WITH PROTOMORPHS, DADA, SURREALISM, COLLAGE, FUTURISM, EXPERIMENTAL FICTION, CRIME SCENES, STOLEN LOVE POSITIONS, VISUAL POETRY, BILITERAL ALPHABETS, CONSTRAINED TEXTS, MAD FOLD-INS, FRENCH LITERATURE, ABSURDIST HUMOR, SOUND POEMS, SILENT CINEMA, FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS, & MORE.

This issue features contributions by Tim Newton Anderson; Tom Barrett; Terry Bradford; Steve Carll; Peter Cherches; Norman Conquest; Lynn Crawford; Jeanne Devlin;  Jean-Christophe Duchon-Doris; Albert Ehrenstein; James Montgomery Flagg; Shawn Garrett; Edward Gauvin; Vasilisk Gnedov; Michael Gould; Allan Randolph Kausch; Amy Kurman; Julia Lillard; Emilia Loseva; George MacLennan; Zach Keali’i Murphy; Opal Louis Nations; Grasset d’Orcet;  Bernard Quiriny; Paul Rosheim; Marcel Schneider;  Doug Skinner; Lono Taggers; Mark Valentine; Renée Vivien; Tom Whalen; Paul Willems; Carla M. Wilson; Danny Winkler; Mark Wyatt.

TYPO #8: The International Journal of Prototypes
155 pp., trade paperback; ISBN: 979-8-9908521-9-8
$20

Seven is Heaven

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

Sweet Sixteen!

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!

Let’s Not Hit Each Other

We Are Not Sheep

2 + 2 = 5

Loves, Delights, & Organs

Alphonse Allais Reader

The Blaireau Affair

Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks

Pink and Apple-Green

Double Over

I Am Sarcey

Long Live Life!

Masks: Deluxe Special Edition

No Bile!

Selected Plays of Alphonse Allais

The Squadron’s Umbrella  

 

WHET YOUR APPETITE…

Here’s your chance to sample 14 titles in the Pocket Erotica Series, the
seminal series of classic & contemporary erotic fiction.

This mouth-watering anthology includes:

Travels to Merryland. Anonymous
From Their Lips to His Ear. Denis Diderot
Priapeia. Anonymous
A Judge Deceived. Marquis de Sade
A Good Girl’s Home Companion. Lawrence Hamilton
A Handbook of Manners for the Good Girls of France. Pierre Louÿs
Poems of Lust & Desire. Various
Jean-Fucque. Louis Aragon / RJ Dent
Eve’s Academy. Eurydice Eve
A Dirty Story as You Like It. Kim Vodicka
Escape Artists. Su Orwell
Grand Hotel Vittoria. Nina Ansani
The Obedience Room. Catherine D’Avis
The Desire Box. Laure Favager

THE POCKET EROTICA READER

A Connoisseur’s Sampler
Edited by Norman Conquest
New Urge Editions
Paperback; 178 pp.; $14
ISBN 979-8-9908521-5-0