World Food Books

The Autobiography of George Grosz: A Small Yes and a Big No
by George Grosz

1982, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 246 pages,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Allison & Busby / London

$35.00 - Out of stock

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1982 English hardcover edition of The Autobiography of George Grosz: A Small Yes and a Big No, first published by Dial Press in New York City, translated by Lola Sachs Dorin. In 1982, this new translation by Arnold Pomerans of the 1955 German edition was published by Allison and Busby in London.

The autobiography of George Grosz (1893—1959), the great German artist and satirist, is crammed with unique anecdotes and reminiscences. More than just a chronicle of his own life, it becomes in effect a history of the modern movement and is, says the Stuttgarter Zeitung, "a glorious, exciting book".

Grosz recalls his Pomeranian childhood, army life during the First World War, revolution and hunger in its aftermath, the frenzied, disjointed world of Dadaism and Nazism in the Weimar Republic. He describes the cafés, beer-cellars and studios of Paris and Berlin, a dangerous but optimistic journey to Soviet Russia and final emigration to the United States — less than a month before the Nazis came to power.

He conjures up an exciting period and the central figures, the intellectual outsiders, who were responsible for shaping it — a colourful and unforgettable crowd, the artists and writers and film people and political activists, Dali, de Chirico, Rosa Luxemburg, Thomas Mann, Lenin, Brecht, Dos Passos, Joseph von Sternberg, Trotsky, and many others.

Grosz was the most rebellious and explosive of artists, the scourge of militarism, capitalism and the bourgeoisie in the 1920s, whose lines "tore like barbed wire" and whose life and work became a legend. His autobiography is a rich, enjoyable book, here fully available in English for the first time.

Very Good copy, VG dust jacket.

File under: George Grosz Allison & Busby / London Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Crime / Violence Sociology / Politics Dada Art Painting Drawing Out-of-print / Rare

The Aesthetics of Murder: A Study in Romantic Literature and Contemporary Culture
by Joel Black

1991, English
Softcover, 304 pages, 23 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by John Hopkins University Press / Baltimore

$45.00 - Out of stock

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First 1991 John Hopkins edition.

What connects the Romantic essays of Thomas De Quincey and the violent cinema of Brian De Palma? Or the "beautiful" suicides of Hedda Gabler and Yukio Mishima? Or the shootings of John Lennon and Ronald Reagan? In The Aesthetics of Murder, Joel Black explores the sometimes gruesome interplay between life and art, between actual violence and images of violence in a variety of literary texts, paintings, and films.

Rather than exclude murder from critical consideration by dismissing it as a crime, Black urges us to ponder the killer's artistic role—and our own experience as audience, witness, or voyeur. Black examines murder as a recurring, obsessive theme in the Romantic tradition, approaching the subject from an aesthetic rather than a moral, psychological, or philosophical perspective. And he brings into his discussion contemporary instances of sensational murders and assassinations, treating these as mimetic or cathartic activities in their own right.

Combining historical documentation with theoretical insights, Black shows that the possibilities of representing violence—and of experiencing it—as art were recognized early in the nineteenth century as logical extensions of Romantic theories of the sublime. Since then, both traditional art forms and the modern mass media have contributed to the growing aestheticization of violence.

Very Good copy, light wear.

File under: Brian De Palma René Magritte Thomas de Quincey Yukio Mishima John Hopkins University Press / Baltimore Surrealism Crime / Violence Theory / Essay Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Out-of-print / Rare Philosophy Film / Video Fiction / Poetry Art Performance / Dance / Theater Sociology / Politics

RE/Search #8/9: J.G. Ballard

1984 / 1991, English
Softcover, 172 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by RE/SEARCH / San Francisco

$70.00 - Out of stock

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"The definitive guide to Ballard to date"—The Face

1991 edition of RE/Search's classic 1984 issue on J.G. Ballard, a volume packed with interviews with Ballard, fiction, non-fiction pieces, art by Ballard, bibliography, and much more! The nonpareil introduction to the visionary prophet of the 21st century; a comprehensive special on this supremely relevant writer, now famous for Empire of the Sun and Crash, with some of the best interviews ever recorded, PLUS! his rarely-seen collages. This strikingly illustrated volume contains interviews and a wealth of rare selections from every aspect of Ballard’s career, plus bibliography and more. Essays include "Time, Memory and Inner Space," "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan," an article about William Burroughs entitled "Mythmaker of the 20th Century," and "Coming of the unconscious."

Very Good copy, light wear.

File under: J. G. Ballard J.G. Ballard RE/SEARCH / San Francisco Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Out-of-print / Rare Fiction / Poetry Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Art Periodicals Sociology / Politics

Are Prisons Obsolete?
by Angela Y. Davis

2011, English
Softcover, 128 pages, 17.5 x 13 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by Seven Stories Press / New York

$20.00 - Out of stock

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With her characteristic brilliance, grace and radical audacity, Angela Y. Davis has put the case for the latest abolition movement in American life: the abolition of the prison. As she quite correctly notes, American life is replete with abolition movements, and when they were engaged in these struggles, their chances of success seemed almost unthinkable. For generations of Americans, the abolition of slavery was sheerest illusion. Similarly,the entrenched system of racial segregation seemed to last forever, and generations lived in the midst of the practice, with few predicting its passage from custom. The brutal, exploitative (dare one say lucrative?) convict-lease system that succeeded formal slavery reaped millions to southern jurisdictions (and untold miseries for tens of thousands of men, and women). Few predicted its passing from the American penal landscape. Davis expertly argues how social movements transformed these social, political and cultural institutions, and made such practices untenable.

In Are Prisons Obsolete?, Professor Davis seeks to illustrate that the time for the prison is approaching an end. She argues forthrightly for "decarceration", and argues for the transformation of the society as a whole.

Angela Yvonne Davis (b. 1944) is an American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic, and author; she is a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Davis was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). She was active in movements such as the Occupy movement and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.

Fine copy.

File under: Angela Y. Davis Seven Stories Press / New York Sociology / Politics Feminism Socialism / Communism / Capitalism Crime / Violence Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Philosophy

Kikuji Yamashita

1996, Japanese
Softcover, 195 pages, 23.4 x 24.7 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Art / Yokohama

$150.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of this major survey exhibition catalogue on the Japanese Surrealist painter Kikuji Yamashita (1919—1986), a postwar painter who confronted the problem of the common people's consciousness and characterised the chaos of social realism with spectacular surrealist methods, inventing reportage paintings, and turning real-life incidents into provocative picture-story shows. Profusely illustrated with Yamashita's incredible phantasmagorical paintings and collages, accompanied by texts tracing his life "Memories, Encounters with Surrealism, Experiences in the Battlefield" by Tamon Miki, Masato Ozaki, Ikuo Arikawa, Hikaru Harada.

Kikuji Yamashita (b. 1919, Tokushima, Shikoku Island, d. 1986) was a Japanese Surrealist painter, printmaker, collagist, activist and bird lover associated with the postwar avant-garde art movement in Japan who studied under the Japanese Surrealist painter Ichiro Fukuzawa in Tokyo. In 1939 he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial military to fight in China, and although he survived the war, feelings of guilt and traumatic memories of his wartime experience, including participating in the torture and murder of a Chinese prisoner, pervaded his ferocious postwar artistic vision and output. His work became emblematic of the ‘Reportage’ style of painting, whereby artists expressed Socialist concerns in a style combining Social Realism and Surrealism. As a young man he travelled to Europe where he was introduced to the works of artists including Max Ernst, Salvador Dali and Hieronymus Bosch. Yamashita transposes the perverse and fantastical imagery of Bosch into an explicitly Surrealist register. In Yamashita’s paintings, the human figure is fragmented and morphed into erotically suggestive, comical or abject guises. The nude body, and its potential to contort into something uncanny or grotesque, is a continual subject of Yamashita Kikuji’s phantasmagorical paintings. Although he continued to paint hundreds of canvases, he deliberately avoided seeking out commercial success, perhaps out of a sense of guilt, and was only able to survive as a full-time artist thanks to his devoted wife's earnings as a beautician. "He didn’t talk about it much, but he would cry out from his nightmares at night. He sounded like he was in such pain that I used to wake him. He didn’t tell me directly, but in 1970 he published an article, “A Peephole onto Discrimination.” In it, he wrote about how he had executed a prisoner of war in a very brutal fashion." He deeply regretted the fact that he couldn’t give his own life by refusing that order. He wanted to take responsibility for what he had done. That became the driving force behind his paintings. Yamashita was a bird lover—evident in the recurring image of birds in his paintings—and shared his home and studio with many birds, including owls and hawks. It is said that he would sometimes appear at an exhibition, disheveled and cheerful, accompanied by a small bird in his pocket that he would feed premasticated (pre‐chewed) food directly from his mouth.

Very Good copy.

File under: Yamashita Kikuji Kikuji Yamashita Tamon Miki Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Art / Yokohama Art Painting Surrealism Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare

Kikuji Yamashita
Collapsed Swamp — The World of Painter Yamashita Kikuji

1979, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket and obi strip), 118 pages, 20.7 x 18.3 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Subaru Shobo / Japan

$90.00 - In stock -

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Wonderful 1979 publication on Japanese Surrealist painter Kikuji Yamashita (1919—1986), a painter who can be said to have grown up with the pure spirit of freedom like a boy. This book is a human record of Yamashita's life and opinions, his suffering and rebellion, based on the documentary film "Kuzureru Swamp Painter Kikuji Yamashita". Heavily illustrated with images of Yamashita's incredible phantasmagorical paintings alongside many rare images of his personal life, studio and birds, biographical details, and much more giving insight into this incredible artist's world.

Kikuji Yamashita (b. 1919, Tokushima, Shikoku Island, d. 1986) was a Japanese Surrealist painter, printmaker, collagist, activist and bird lover associated with the postwar avant-garde art movement in Japan who studied under the Japanese Surrealist painter Ichiro Fukuzawa in Tokyo. In 1939 he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial military to fight in China, and although he survived the war, feelings of guilt and traumatic memories of his wartime experience, including participating in the torture and murder of a Chinese prisoner, pervaded his ferocious postwar artistic vision and output. His work became emblematic of the ‘Reportage’ style of painting, whereby artists expressed Socialist concerns in a style combining Social Realism and Surrealism. As a young man he travelled to Europe where he was introduced to the works of artists including Max Ernst, Salvador Dali and Hieronymus Bosch. Yamashita transposes the perverse and fantastical imagery of Bosch into an explicitly Surrealist register. In Yamashita’s paintings, the human figure is fragmented and morphed into erotically suggestive, comical or abject guises. The nude body, and its potential to contort into something uncanny or grotesque, is a continual subject of Yamashita Kikuji’s phantasmagorical paintings. Although he continued to paint hundreds of canvases, he deliberately avoided seeking out commercial success, perhaps out of a sense of guilt, and was only able to survive as a full-time artist thanks to his devoted wife's earnings as a beautician. "He didn’t talk about it much, but he would cry out from his nightmares at night. He sounded like he was in such pain that I used to wake him. He didn’t tell me directly, but in 1970 he published an article, “A Peephole onto Discrimination.” In it, he wrote about how he had executed a prisoner of war in a very brutal fashion." He deeply regretted the fact that he couldn’t give his own life by refusing that order. He wanted to take responsibility for what he had done. That became the driving force behind his paintings. Yamashita was a bird lover—evident in the recurring image of birds in his paintings—and shared his home and studio with many birds, including owls and hawks. It is said that he would sometimes appear at an exhibition, disheveled and cheerful, accompanied by a small bird in his pocket that he would feed premasticated (pre‐chewed) food directly from his mouth.

Very Good copy.

File under: Yamashita Kikuji Kikuji Yamashita Subaru Shobo / Japan Art Surrealism Painting Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare

The Mirror of Production
Jean Baudrillard

1975, English
Softcover, 178 pages, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Telos Press / St. Louis

$65.00 - Out of stock

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Rare first 1975 English edition of Baudrillard's The Mirror of Production. Translated with introduction by Mark Poster.

"Are the concepts of labor and of production adaptable to a developing industrial society? What is the meaning of "pre-industrial organization"? In attempting to answer these questions, Jean Baudrillard examines the lessons of Marxism, which has created a productivist model and a fetishism of labor. He argues that we must break the mirror of production, which "reflects all of Western metaphysics," and free the Marxist logic from the restrictive context of political economy whence it was born."

Good copy with some marginalia on a few pages.

File under: Jean Baudrillard Mark Poster Telos Press / St. Louis Philosophy Socialism / Communism / Capitalism Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay

Male Fantasies Vol. 1+2: Women, Floods, Bodies, History / Male Bodies: Psychoanalyzing the White Terror
by Klaus Theweleit

1987 / 2000s, English
Softcover, 518 + 507 pages, 22.4 x 15.3 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by University of Minnesota Press / Minnesota

$120.00 - Out of stock

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First edition, mid 2000s re-prints of Theweleit's 1987 classic two-volume Male Fantasies as complete set translated from the original German. Volume 1: Women, Floods, Bodies, History; Volume 2: Male Bodies: Psychoanalyzing the White Terror.

Klaus Theweleit's two-volume work Mannerphantasien, published in the late 1970s, has become a contemporary German classic. Male Fantasies dives into the sexual, psychological and sociopolitical foundation of National Socialism as it was manifested in the Weimar Republic, arguing that fascism is not a political or economic phenomenon, but a method to manufacture a specific reality. Unlike any study before it, Male Fantasies centers upon the fantasies that preoccupied a group of men who played a crucial role in the rise of Nazism — The German Freikorps, the precursors of the SA and SS. Theweleit draws upon the novels, letters, and autobiographies of these proto-fascists and their contemporaries. There he discovered how the repudiation of one's own body—and of femininity—became a psychic compulsion associating masculinity with hardness, self-denial, and destruction.

The first volume of Male Fantasies deals primarily with the image of women in the collective unconscious of the fascist warrior—visions reflecting hatred and fear, culminating in a series of liquid metaphors—red tide, lava, mud—that threaten to engulf the male ego. In Volume 2, Theweleit shifts his attention to the male self-image. We are shown how the body becomes a mechanism for eluding the dreaded liquid and the "feminine" emotions associated with it. Armored, organized by mental and physical procedures like the military drill, the male body is transformed into "a man of steel'.' As Theweleit shows, only in war does this body find redemption from constraint.

Theweleit writes in a non orthodox, highly personal and associative style, heavily illustrating his works with incredible cartoons, advertisements, engravings, and posters of the era.

"Theweleit's book asks some key questions for those of us interested in Men's Studies. [It] takes us inside the psyches of men who, in Theweleit's analysis, are not destroying and murdering out of sublimation, but because they want to." — Men's Studies Review

"Klaus Theweleit's book, like the first volume of his massive study, usefully employs psychoanalytic insights in conjunction with the social-historical analyses of Elias, Mary Douglas, Foucault, and others to investigate the formation and nature of the fascist psyche in 1920s Germany, exploring here the male self-image, envisaged as armored against the threat and intrusion of the feminine." — Contemporary Sociology

Klaus Theweleit (b. 1942) is a German sociologist and writer. In 1977–78 he published the two volumes of Male Fantasies, now recognized as a pre-eminent work on the body, war and fascism. In 1990 he published Orpheus (und) Eurydike, the first volume of The Book of Kings, an examination of Western art through male artists’ relationship with women.

As New copies both, 2000s re-prints of first Minnesota edition.

File under: Klaus Theweleit University of Minnesota Press / Minnesota Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare Psychoanalysis Feminism LGBTQ+ Theory / Essay Art Crime / Violence

ORSTRALIA - A PUNK HISTORY 1990—1999
by Tristan Clark

2024, English
Softcover, 212 pages, 23 x 15 cm
Published by Self Published / Melbourne

$30.00 - Out of stock

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Australia, the 1990s: Strictly Ballroom, Silverchair, Mabo, Port Arthur, economic rationalism, and Pauline Hanson.

Within its more concealed history, the opening of the decade saw punk in Australia experiencing a transitory lull. Populated mostly by the diehards and remnants of the 1980s, its sound and style were in danger of being subsumed, or at least diluted, by grunge and alternative music through a resurgent interest in guitar-driven bands. Able to maintain its own identity and networks against the challenge, as the decade progressed punk evolved into even more diffuse subgenres.

Now, twenty years after its relatively inauspicious birth in Australia, punk, in one of its multivarious forms, topped the national music charts. But though the decade brought if not respectability then a new saleability to punk, it was an era still prone to its tumult, tragedy, humour, and audacity. Through a further 70 interviews, Orstralia: A Punk History 1990-1999 continues the disclosure of its first volume, covering bands from the most obscure to those who reached the very apex of Australia's music industry.

Tristan Clark is a Melbourne-based educator, musician, and writer. His involvement in punk has spanned over three decades and encompassed a near gamut of roles: band member, roadie, merch person, show organizer, Food Not Bombs volunteer, community radio DJ, as well as having written sporadically for local zines and other publications. He now routinely encounters the young students he spends his week working with at local DIY shows and is heartened by punk’s continued ability to self-reproduce.

File under: Tristan Clark Self Published / Melbourne Sound / Music Counterculture Sociology / Politics Australian Art Theory / Essay Anarchism

The Burnout Society
by Byung-Chul Han

2015, English
Softcover, 72 pafes, 20.5 x 13 cm
Published by Stanford University Press / Palo Alto

$29.00 - Out of stock

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Our competitive, service-oriented societies are taking a toll on the late-modern individual. Rather than improving life, multitasking, "user-friendly" technology, and the culture of convenience are producing disorders that range from depression to attention deficit disorder to borderline personality disorder. Byung-Chul Han interprets the spreading malaise as an inability to manage negative experiences in an age characterized by excessive positivity and the universal availability of people and goods. Stress and exhaustion are not just personal experiences, but social and historical phenomena as well. Denouncing a world in which every against-the-grain response can lead to further disempowerment, he draws on literature, philosophy, and the social and natural sciences to explore the stakes of sacrificing intermittent intellectual reflection for constant neural connection.

File under: Byung-Chul Han Stanford University Press / Palo Alto Philosophy Sociology / Politics Theory / Essay

Dada: Art and Anti-Art
by Hans Richter

1965, English
Softcover, 246 pages, 20.5 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Harry N. Abrams / New York

$30.00 - Out of stock

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First 1965 English edition of German Dada painter, graphic artist, avant-garde film producer, and art historian, Hans Richter's important book of the Dada movement. "Where and how Dada began is almost as difficult to determine as Homer's birthplace" writes Hans Richter, who was associated with Dada from its early days. The noted artist and film-maker records here the history of that boisterous and fantastic movement, from its beginnings in wartime Zurich to its collapse in the Paris of the 1920s Dada invited the world to misunderstand it and fostered all kinds of confusion; nearly fifty years later its contradictions still intrigue us.

By skilful quotation from manifestoes and other documents of the time Professor Richter re-creates the events of those turbulent days. Looked at in retrospect Dada's role in the development of modern art seems inevitable, and the creative force of its planned outbursts can now be perceived: Dada led on from Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism, and in its turn prepared the way for Surrealism. Dada was enlivened by extravagant, bizarre personalities: Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Hans Arp, Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Man Ray. Today the wheel has turned again; the gestures and provocations of the original movement reappear, hardly changed, in such forms as Pop art. The final section discusses this phenomenon.

"Mr.Richter, one of the original adherents of Dada, describes their attitude in a first-rate history, as objective and sober as the laughter was once derisive."—THE TIMES OF LONDON

Very Good copy, light wear to extremities, tanning to covers.

File under: Hans Richter Tristan Tzara Francis Picabia Hans Arp Kurt Schwitters Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Man Ray Raoul Hausmann George Grosz Giorgio de Chirico Marcel Janco Hans Richter Tristan Tzara Louis Aragon Andre Breton André Breton Richard Huelsenbeck Philippe Soupault Harry N. Abrams / New York Dada Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Painting Drawing Performance / Dance / Theater Photography Sociology / Politics Protest / Revolt Art 'Pataphysics / Oulipo

Semiotext(e) Vol. III, No. 2, 1978 — Schizo-Culture

1978, English
Softcover, 226 pages, 25.5 x 17 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles

$200.00 - Out of stock

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Rare copy of the breakthrough "Schizo-Culture" issue of the original Semiotext(e) journal, published and edited by Sylvère Lotringer between 1974—1985, with later book-length issues appearing in the 1990s. This historical, controversial issue, “consummated the magazine’s rupture with academe”—Sylvère Lotringer. "Schizo-Culture' was published in the wake of the legendary 1975 “Schizo-Culture” conference, conceived by the early Semiotext(e) collective, that began as an attempt to introduce the then-unknown radical philosophies of post-’68 France to the American avant-garde. The event featured a series of seminal papers, from Deleuze’s first presentation of the concept of the “rhizome” to Foucault’s introduction of his History of Sexuality project. The conference was equally important on a political level, and brought together a diverse group of activists, thinkers, patients, and ex-cons in order to address the challenge of penal and psychiatric institutions. The combination proved to be explosive, but amid the fighting and confusion “Schizo-Culture” revealed deep ruptures in left politics, French thought, and American culture. The “Schizo-Culture” issue of the Semiotext(e) journal came three years later. Designed by a group of artists and filmmakers including Kathryn Bigelow and Denise Green with schizophrenia type/image-setting, the issue’s contributors included a kind of who’s who of New York’s downtown art scene (Jack Smith, William S. Burroughs, Kathy Acker...), documenting the artistic chaos, offering interviews with artists, theorists, writers, and No Wave and pre-punk musicians together with new texts from Deleuze, Lyotard, Foucault, Laing, and other conference participants and key “French theory” figures. It also featured a delirious essay about markings on the savage body, by one Alphonso F. Lingis; an intimate interview with a member of an all-female street gang in the Bronx; and a detailed history of behavior-modification programs inside US correctional institutions (post-Attica), written from inside by prisoner activist Eddie Griffin. Gary Indiana has said that reading “Schizo-Culture” was one of the things that made it clear to him that he would inevitably move to New York.

Includes: Michel Foucault, Robert Wilson, Francois Peraldi, Guy Hocquenghem, The Ramones, William S. Burroughs, Louis Wolfson, Lee Breuer, Eddie Griffin, Wendy Clark, Elie C. Messinger, David Cooper, Martine Barrat, John Giorno, Alphonso F. Lingis, Bernard-Henri Levy, Kathy Acker, Richard Foreman, André Cadere, Ulrike Meinhof, Gilles Deleuze, John Cage, Pat Steir , Jean-Jacques Abrahams, Phil Glass, Jack Smith, Jean Francois Lyotard, Douglas Dunn, and others...

Good copy with age wear, marking and tanning to raw stocks.

File under: Robert Wilson The Ramones Lee Breuer Kathryn Bigelow Denise Green André Cadere John Cage Philip Glass Jack Smith Richard Foreman Jean-François Lyotard Michel Foucault Robert Wilson Francois Peraldi Guy Hocquenghem Kathy Acker Louis Wolfson Lee Breuer Eddie Griffin Wendy Clark Elie C. Messinger David Cooper Martine Barrat John Giorno Alphonso F. Lingis Bernard-Henri Levy Ulrike Meinhof Gilles Deleuze Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari Felix Guattari John Cage Jean-Jacques Abrahams Douglas Dunn Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles Counterculture Feminism Film / Video Art Philosophy Fiction / Poetry Anarchism Sociology / Politics Socialism / Communism / Capitalism Drugs / Psychedelia Psychoanalysis Out-of-print / Rare Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Eros Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+ Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Performance / Dance / Theater Sound / Music Theory / Essay

Semiotext(e) Vol. II, No. 3, 1977 — Anti-Oedipus: From Psychoanalysis to Schizopolitics
Sylvère Lotringer; Gilles Deleuze; Felix Guattari

1977, English
Softcover, 192 pages, 21.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles

$200.00 - Out of stock

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Rare copy of this remarkable issue of the original Semiotext(e) journal, published and edited by Sylvère Lotringer between 1974—1985, with later book-length issues appearing in the 1990s. This key issue, Anti-Oedipus: From Psychoanalysis to Schizopolitics, was published hot on the heels of the publication of Deleuze and Guattari's seminal "Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia", published by Viking in 1977. This issue of the journal explores the issues raised by Deleuze and Guattari, whilst searching for their practical applications. Features major contributions by Sylvère Lotringer, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, Jean-François Lyotard, Guy Hocquenghem, Antonin Artaud, Jacques Donzelot, John Rajchman, et al.

Founded in 1974, Semiotext(e) began as a journal that emerged from a semiotics reading group led by Sylvère Lotringer at the Columbia University philosophy department. Initially, the magazine was devoted to readings of thinkers like Nietzsche and Saussure. In 1978, Lotringer and his collaborators published a special issue, Schizo-Culture, in the wake of a conference of the same name he had organized two years before at Columbia University. The magazine brought together artists and thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze, Kathy Acker, John Cage, Michel Foucault, Jack Smith, Martine Barrat and Lee Breuer. Schizo-Culture brought out connections between high theory and underground culture that had not yet been made, and forged the "high/low" aesthetic that remains central to the Semiotext(e) project.

Very Good copy with some wear and usual tanning to the spine, raw paper stock edges. Spine and binding undamaged.

File under: Antonin Artaud Felix Guattari Gilles Deleuze Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari SylveÌre Lotringer Antonin Artaud Guy Hocquenghem John Rajchman Jean-François Lyotard Jacques Donzelot Ferdinand de Saussure Luce Irigaray Georges Bataille Gerard Bucher Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles Theory / Essay Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Anarchism Sociology / Politics Psychoanalysis Philosophy Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Counterculture Socialism / Communism / Capitalism LGBTQ+ Eros Dada Surrealism Fiction / Poetry

Semiotext(e) The German Issue
Edited by Sylvère Lotringer

1982, English
Softcover, 336 pages, 255.5 x 17.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles

$150.00 - In stock -

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Rare copy of one of the remarkable special book issues of the original Semiotext(e) journal — the Semiotext(e) The German Issue, published in 1982, edited by Sylvère Lotringer, featuring the work of Joseph Beuys, Michel Foucault, Christo, Christa Wolf, Walter Abish, Alexander Kluge, Paul Virilio, Ulrilke Meinhof, William Burroughs, Jean Baudrillard, Hans Magnus Enzenberger, Maurice Blanchot, Hans Jürgen Syberberg, Heidegger, Félix Guattari, Fritz Teufel, André Gorz, Helke Sander...

First edition. Not the 2009 reprint.

The German Issue (1982) was originally conceived as a follow-up to Semiotext(e)’s Autonomia/Italy issue, published two years earlier. Although ideological terrorism was still a major issue in Germany, what ultimately emerged from these pages was an investigation of two outlaw cities, Berlin and New York, which embodied all the tensions and contradictions of the world at the time. The German Issue is the Tale of Two Cities, then, with each city separated from its own country by an invisible wall of suspicion or even hatred. It is also the complex evocation of the rebelling youth—squatters, punks, artists and radicals, theorists and ex-terrorists—who gathered all their energy and creativity in order to outlive a hostile environment.

Like a time capsule, The German Issue brings together all the major "issues" that were being debated on both sides of the Atlantic—which eventually found their abrupt resolution in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. It involved the most important voices of the period—from writers and filmmakers to anthropologists, activists and poets, terrorists and philosophers. The book opens with Christo's “Wrapping Up of Germany” and the celebrated dialogue between East German dramaturge Heiner Müller and Sylvère Lotringer on the Wall (“Mauer”). Since it has been published in many languages, The German Issue offers a first-hand account of the Western world on the threshold of a major global mutation.

Founded in 1974, Semiotext(e) began as a journal that emerged from a semiotics reading group led by Sylvère Lotringer at the Columbia University philosophy department. Initially, the magazine was devoted to readings of thinkers like Nietzsche and Saussure. In 1978, Lotringer and his collaborators published a special issue, Schizo-Culture, in the wake of a conference of the same name he had organized two years before at Columbia University. The magazine brought together artists and thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze, Kathy Acker, John Cage, Michel Foucault, Jack Smith, Martine Barrat and Lee Breuer. Schizo-Culture brought out connections between high theory and underground culture that had not yet been made, and forged the "high/low" aesthetic that remains central to the Semiotext(e) project.

Good—Very Good copy with general cover wear.

File under: Joseph Beuys Christo Joseph Beuys Michel Foucault Christo Christa Wolf Walter Abish Alexander Kluge Paul Virilio Ulrilke Meinhof William Burroughs Jean Baudrillard Hans Magnus Enzenberger Maurice Blanchot Hans Jürgen Syberberg André Gorz Helke Sander Martin Heidegger Félix Guattari Fritz Teufel SylveÌre Lotringer Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles Sociology / Politics Socialism / Communism / Capitalism Out-of-print / Rare Anarchism Art Conceptual Art Fiction / Poetry Philosophy Psychoanalysis Crime / Violence Feminism Fluxus Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Performance / Dance / Theater Periodicals Theory / Essay Protest / Revolt

Anarchy now!
by Bill ‘Ubi’ Dwyer

1968, English
Softcover (staple bound), 32 pages
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Federation of Australian Anarchists / Sydney

$70.00 - Out of stock

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Rare copy of the wonderful 1968 pamphlet by Bill ‘Ubi’ Dwyer (1933—2001), an anarchist activist, squatter and Freedom Festival trail-blazer in New Zealand, Australia, England and his native Ireland, published by Federation of Australian Anarchists, Sydney. Anarchy now! is a great Anarchist primer that also outlined Dwyer particular style of heterodox anarchism. Heavily illustrated and citing all the important figures throughout the history of anarchist tradition and ideology, littered with quotes and heavy with information, especially for the Australian reader, on Anarchist groups and journals, recommended reading list, bios, questionnaire... Dwyer was involved with Freedom Press news group in Britain and its associated Anarchy magazine.

In the mid-1950s, Dwyer moved to Aotearoa (New Zealand) from Ireland. Whilst there he was introduced to anarchism by an English expat and became very active in politics. He lived in New Zealand until 1966, and was involved in a series of legendary events. Dwyer organised no-confidence motions in the leadership of the Wellington Watersiders Union and the Victoria University Students Union. After being convicted for calling the Queen a bludger whilst speaking in Auckland in 1966, Dwyer moved to Sydney and sold acid to finance his anarchist activities. He became an exponent of psychedelic anarchism, and engaged in soapbox oratory in the Sydney Domain and published this pamphlet (Anarchy now!) on his political philosophy of liberation. The same year he was sent to prison for selling LSD, and the Australian government deported him back to Ireland in 1969. In Dublin in 1970, Dwyer was a member of the Island Commune, a squatted house on Dublin's exclusive Merrion Road and between 1970 and 1972, a commune, organised by friend Sid Rawle, was established on Dorinish, an island then owned by John Lennon. Inspired by his experiences during the "liberation" of the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, Dwyer developed the idea of a truly "free" festival. An acid trip in Windsor Great Park led to the notion of squatting on the former common land that had been in Crown ownership since being reserved for royal hunting by William the Conqueror, and he began to organise what was to become the People's Free Festival. Windsor Free Festival was the forerunner of, and inspiration for, the Free Festival Movement, particularly the Stonehenge Free Festival and the later Glastonbury Festivals. Following the violent suppression of the 1974 event, he and Rawle were imprisoned to prevent the organising of a 1975 festival. Dwyer was imprisoned again attempting to organise another Windsor Free Festival in 1978, which did take place at Caesar's Camp nearby.

"This booklet is intended partly as an elementary introduction to anarchism, partly to show its relevance and immediacy to modern society and partly to demonstrate the unity of anarchist tradition and philosophy. Quotations are drawn from anarchists of widely differing backgrounds ranging from Max Stirner and Peter Kropotkin to a contemporary Sydney libertarian. Much of the criticism which different schools of anarchist thought have made of one another often shows a lack of understanding of their varying environments and needs. Anarchism is no dogma and its appeal, for example, to an artist will be quite different to its appeal for an industrial worker. I have divided the booklet into two parts — I. The Enemy and II. We, the People-to emphasise the principal aspects of anarchism, viz. rejection of authority and the concept that the individual and society can exist without authority and its attendant evils. The title ANARCHY NOW! indicates the need for an unceasing battle against authority and the possibility (sometimes a reality) of people organising co-operative, mutual aid enterprises ranging from the establishment of free schools to worker control of industry. Every individual must repudiate the claim of anyone else to rule and exploit him. In whatever occupation he is engaged he may fight by co-operating with his fellows to insist on a share in the making of decisions and on their fundamental equal ownership of society's wealth. The urgency of this fight is based on the realisation that the status of Mr Everyman today is that of a slave."—Bill Dwyer, Sydney, September 1968 (preface)

Good copy with some cover wear and general age.

File under: Bill ‘Ubi’ Dwyer Federation of Australian Anarchists / Sydney Anarchism Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare Counterculture Protest / Revolt

Nazis out of Uniform. The Dangers of Neo-Nazi Terrorism in Australia
by Denis Freney (signed)

1984, English
Softcover (staple bound), 50 pages, 27.5 x 20.5 cm
Signed copy.,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Denis Freney / Sydney

$70.00 - Out of stock

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Very rare and controversial publication self published in late 1984, Nazis Out Of Uniform, by Denis Freney, teacher, political activist, journalist, writer and editor of the Communist Party paper Tribune and author of The CIA's Australian Connection (1977). With cover illustration of National Action founder (and Australia First Party member) "Jim Saleam in full nazi regalia at a demonstration in Brisbane in mid-1970's. Behind him, largely obscured, is Ross "The ull" Skull" May, also in full nazi uniform". Illustrated throughout, with chapters "- Don't call us nazis: the early post-war groups"; "The fascist international"; "National Alliance: the great illusions"; "Strasserism and all that: the ideology of oz nazism"; "Bashers and bombers: National Action in Action"; "Terrorists worldwide: NA makes friends"; "The respectable racists: All the way with Joh and Flo"; "Conclusion: what can be done?"; "Appendix One: The League of Rights"; "Appendix Two: Graeme Royce/Maguire"; "Appendix Three: Geoff McDonald"; "Appendix Four: From White Power to Grey Power?", plus advertisements for Searchlight: The Anti-Fascist Monthly, Tribune, and Australian Left Review.

Signed by Denis, dedicated to Carmel, on the contents page in green ink.

Freney was a well known political activist in the 1970s. He helped organise demonstrations against the war in Vietnam and the Springbok rugby tour (1971). This was followed by his involvement in the campaign for an independent East Timor and the independence struggles in Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

Very Good copy with only very light wear to edges and light age/tanning.

File under: Denis Freney Denis Freney / Sydney Out-of-print / Rare Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Sociology / Politics Crime / Violence Protest / Revolt LGBTQ+ Theory / Essay Socialism / Communism / Capitalism Australian Art Signed Books

The Motion of Light in Water: East Village Sex and Science Fiction Writing: 1960—1965
by Samuel R. Delany

1990, English
Softcover, 582 pages, 20 x 13 cm
1st UK Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Paladin / London

$100.00 - Out of stock

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"A very moving, intensely fascinating literary biography from an extraordinary writer"—William Gibson

First 1990 UK edition of the incredible 'early' autobiography of science fiction author Samuel R. Delany. Winner of the 1989 Hugo Award for Non-fiction, 'The Motion of Light in Water: East Village Sex and Science Fiction Writing: 1960—1965' is the self-portrait of the artist as a young African American man, an extraordinary man, showing the roots of his commitment to writing on the cutting edge — and to energetic bisexual experimentation. This first English edition contains material not found in the American edition, featuring cover photograph of Samuel R. Delany, 1961 by Bernard Kay.

Born in New York City's black ghetto Harlem at the start of World War II, Samuel R. Delany married white poet Marilyn Hacker right out of high school. The interracial couple moved into the city's new bohemian quarter, the Lower East Side, in summer 1961. Through the decade's opening years, new art, new sexual practices, new music, and new political awareness burgeoned among the crowded streets and cheap railroad apartments. Beautifully, vividly, insightfully, Delany calls up this era of exploration and adventure as he details his development as a black gay writer in an open marriage, with tertiary walk-ons by Bob Dylan, Stokely Carmichael, W. H. Auden, and James Baldwin, and a panoply of brilliantly drawn secondary characters. Among incidents often outrageous and frequently shocking, Delany tells how, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge one spring afternoon, he decided to commit his full intellectual and artistic energy to writing science fiction. He describes with great candour his relationships with both men and women. As memorable and outrageous as his best fiction, The Motion of Light in Water is both a compelling picture of the 1960s East Village scene and one of the decade's most revealing, offbeat literary autobiographies.

In the chapter, "The Future Is in the Present" of the book Cruising Utopia by José Esteban Munoz, Delany's The Motion of Light in the Water serves to explain how the future, as a form of utopia, can be "glimpsed" in the present through what Delany employed as "the massed bodies" of sexual dissidence.

Samuel R. Delany has been praised by the New York Times Book Review as 'the most interesting author of science fiction writing in English today' and by Umberto Eco as 'not only one of the most important SF writers of the present generation, but a fascinating writer in general who has invented a new style'.

Very Good copy with light creasing and tanning to spine.

File under: Samuel R. Delany Paladin / London Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction LGBTQ+ Counterculture Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare Fiction / Poetry

Let It Bleed: Essays 1985—1995
by Gary Indiana

1996, English
Softcover, 246 pages, 21.5 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Serpent's Tail / London

$40.00 - Out of stock

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First 1996 edition of this long out-of-print collection of essays by Gary Indiana, "One of the most important chroniclers of the modern psyche."—The Guardian

Gary Indiana's essays, like his fiction, take no prisoners. In his fifteen years of writing cultural criticism, he has altered the way we look at ourselves and our society. Ignoring good taste, Indiana writes discomforting home truths, because his views of home are unique and never comfortable. His insights are acute, brash, bracing, intelligent; his subjects and speculations range from Rodney King's beating to Mary McCarthy's friendship with Hannah Arendt to the presidential campaign of 1992. Let It Bleed collects for the first time some of the most engaging, provocative, and exciting writing that has been seen and produced in a long time.

Good—VG with light wear/creasing to covers.

File under: Gary Indiana Serpent's Tail / London LGBTQ+ Theory / Essay Film / Video Out-of-print / Rare Fiction / Poetry Art Sociology / Politics Performance / Dance / Theater

Impossibly Cute Boys: The Healing Power of Shota Comics in Japan
by Karl Andersson

2024, English
Softcover, 228 pages,‎ 20.5 x 13.5 cm
Published by Breakout Bits / Berlin

$45.00 $20.00 - Out of stock

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Shota means cute boys.

The amateur comic genre called shota was pioneeres by young women in Japan in the 1980s. It has since then been embraced and loved by ever more people, but little is known about this manga genre and its readers since research is lacking, both in and outside of Japan. Impossibly Cute Boys is the first book in English about Japanese shota comics. In this research-based ethnography, we meet the readers and creators of this unique and elusive manga genre. Academic rigor meets playful passion when the researcher and his participants try to understand and convey the magical attraction of cute boy characters in Japanese manga and anime.

Based on new research on PhD level, Impossibly Cute Boys details the history of shota (or shotacon) in Japan, before introducing us to the readers and creators of these comics, and asking them what it means to them to love shota. Their answers challenge both previous research and common assumptions about shota fans. And for the first time in English, shota's tumultuous history is mapped in detail.

Impossibly Cute Boys is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo and Yokohama. An original contribution to academic research in the fields of anthropology and queer studies, the book is written in an accessible style and can be enjoyed by anyone wanting to learn more about an often misunderstood manga genre.

File under: Karl Andersson Breakout Bits / Berlin Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Theory / Essay Sociology / Politics LGBTQ+ SALE

WYNDHAM LEWIS : FICTIONS AND SATIRES
by Robert T. Chapman

1978, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 192 pages, 22 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Vision / London

$25.00 - In stock -

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First 1973 hardcover edition of WYNDHAM LEWIS : FICTIONS AND SATIRES by Robert T. Chapman.

Wyndham Lewis played a leading part in the cultural life of England at the beginning of this century. Setting himself up as 'The Enemy', he vociferously opposed Establishment art and received opinion, and for fifty years iconoclastically attacked modish dilettantism and falsity. Novelist, painter, editor, poet, dramatist, critic, philosopher — Lewis was the most versatile of the 'men of 1914', yet his reputation has long been overshadowed by Pound, Eliot and Joyce, and he is only just beginning to be accepted as one of the major figures in twentieth-century literature.

This study concentrates on Lewis as an imaginative writer, and, whilst his philosophy, polemics and paint ing are considered whenever relevant, the major novels are given central importance. The approach is chronological and aims to reveal the development of Lewis's art from the Bergsonian physical comedy of the early stories, through the Vorticist period, the social satires of the Thirties, to the late non-fiction stories and the new mythology of

The Human Age. Formerly a post-graduate assistant in the Department of English at the New University of Ulster, Robert Chapman is at present completing his doctoral thesis on aesthetics in the modern novel and working for the Open University.

VG copy in G dust jacket with closed tears and rubbing wear.

File under: Wyndham Lewis Wyndham Lewis Robert T. Chapman Vision / London Art Sociology / Politics Fiction / Poetry Painting Theory / Essay Philosophy Performance / Dance / Theater Poetry Out-of-print / Rare Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language

Newly Born Woman
by Hélène Cixous and Catherine Clément

1986, English
Softcover, 170 pages, 22 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Manchester University Press / Manchester

$45.00 - Out of stock

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First 1986 English edition.

Published in France as La jeune née in 1975, and found here in its first English translation, The Newly Born Woman is a landmark text of the modern feminist movement. In it, Hélène Cixous and Catherine Clément put forward the concept of écriture feminine, exploring the ways women’s sexuality and unconscious shape their imaginary, their language, and their writing. Through their readings of historical, literary, and psychoanalytic accounts, Cixous and Clément explore what is hidden and repressed in culture, revealing the unconscious of history.

Translation by Betsy Wing
Introduction by Sandra M. Gilbert

"If any one single text can be said to have had the greatest impact on the new French feminist theoretical movement, La jeune née is definitely this text. ... Focusing her investigations on the connections between sexuality and textuality, seeking to identify the neglected, suppressed, specificity of woman's sexuality, of her unconscious and of her fantasms, Cixous explores the ways in which these shape woman's imaginary, her language and her writing. This concept of écriture feminine-which generated passionate debates-was, and continues to be, the most revolutionary concept in French feminist theory."—Isabelle de Courtivron, MIT

Good—Very Good copy with some light erase-able pencil marginalia, light tanning to edges/spine, light cover wear.

File under: Hélène Cixous Catherine Clément Betsy Wing Sandra M. Gilbert Manchester University Press / Manchester Feminism Psychoanalysis Philosophy Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay

The Deleuze Connections
By John Rajchman

2000, English
Softcover, 176 pages,‎ 20.3 x 13.6 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$25.00 - Out of stock

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The first book to present Gilles Deleuze's philosophy in language the nonphilosopher can understand.

This book is a map of the work of Gilles Deleuze—the man Michel Foucault would call the "only real philosophical intelligence in France." It is not only for professional philosophers, but for those engaged in what Deleuze called the "nonphilosophical understanding of philosophy" in other domains, such as the arts, architecture, design, urbanism, new technologies, and politics. For Deleuze's philosophy is meant to go off in many directions at once, opening up zones of unforeseen connections between disciplines.

Rajchman isolates the logic at the heart of Deleuze's philosophy and the "image of thought" that it supposes. He then works out its implications for social and cultural thought, as well as for art and design—for how to do critical theory today. In this way he clarifies the aims and assumptions of a philosophy that looks constantly to invent new ways to affirm the "free differences" and the "complex repetitions" in the histories and spaces in which we find ourselves. He looks at the particular realism and empiricism that this affirmation implies and how they might be used to diagnose new forces confronting us today. In the process, he explores the many connections that Deleuze himself constructs in working out his philosophy, with the arts, political movements, even the neurosciences and artificial intelligence.

"Anyone who thinks Deleuze is difficult should read this extraordinary book. With language as clear as it is concise, Rajchman shows how Deleuze—the self-styled most naïve of philosophers—has also been the most revolutionary in his reinvention of the twentieth century's image of thought with respect to logic, ethics, and art. For those new to Deleuze, this is the first book they should read. And for those who already follow the path of philosophy, Rajchman has shown us that it is not the past century that is Deleuzian, but the one we are beginning."—D. N. Rodowick, Chair in Film Studies, King's College, London, and author of Gilles Deleuze's Time Machine

As New copy.

File under: Gilles Deleuze Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari John Rajchman The MIT Press / Massachusetts Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Theory / Essay Philosophy Out-of-print / Rare Sociology / Politics

The place of the individual in society
by Emma Goldman

1940, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 16 pages, 22 x 14 cm
Out of print title / used / average
Published by Free Society Forum / Chicago

$35.00 - In stock -

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"Long out of print The Place of The Individual in Society is one of Emma Goldman's latest works. Written after her disillusionment with Soviet Russia Goldman, in this work, emphasizes her primary concern the worth and freedom of the individual. Consistent in her criticism of government, be it American or Soviet, Goldman contends that all government stifles the creativity of the individual."—publisher's blurb

An anarchist classic reprinted by Free Society Forum, Chicago, undated but apparently this edition is from 1940 (a later printing from See Sharp Press gives a date of 1940 for this edition), though likely reproduced for many years with light alterations.

Emma Goldman (1869—1940) was a Lithuanian-born anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

Average copy with splitting to spine, staple rust, buggery (bug nibbles) and general age/wear to covers.

File under: Emma Goldman Free Society Forum / Chicago Anarchism Feminism Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Philosophy

The Seven Days of Creation
by Vladimir Maksimov

1977, English
Softcover, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Penguin Books / London

$12.00 - Out of stock

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First English edition of Vladimir Maksimov's The Seven Days of Creation, published by Penguin in 1977, a book that could not be published in the author's own country, Vladimir Maximov being expelled from the Soviet Union for allowing its publication in the West. For this book is a bleak revelation, comparing, as it does, the fate of one Russian working-class family with the pursuit of the Communist ideal over fifty years of suffering, corruption and oppression.

"A tragically coherent picture of these brave, stubborn, vodka-sodden citizens of a maniacally rubber-stamped society'—Daily Telegraph

"Maximov is everything implied by "proletarian writer"; in the context of his experience ... the term holds pathos, magnificence and enough crude ore to give at least some pertinence to Heinrich Boll's opinion that he is among the world's most important writers"—Guardian

Born Lev Samsonov, Moscow, 1930, Soviet and Russian writer, publicist, essayist and editor, Maksimov started writing poetry under the name of Vladimir Maximov. As a dissident, Maximov was twice forcibly admitted to psychiatric hospitals by the KGB. His case attracted international attention and in February 1974 Maximov was forced into political exile and stripped of his Soviet citizenship by Leonid Brezhnev's literary authorities, creating an international scandal. Maximov lived in Paris from then until his death in 1995.

Good with general wear.

File under: Vladimir Maksimov Penguin Books / London Fiction / Poetry Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare