Cocteau, Jean

The Crucifixion

Bethlehem, PA: Quarter Press, 1976. First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. Signed by Jack Hirschman. “I translated The Crucifixion when I was enacting aspects of Kabbala Surrealism among cinematic poets in Venice and Topanga, during the Viet Nam War. The hearts of those poets/painters lay close to theater, though swept into the waves of electromagnetic America—that “too much” about which we have learned so much this past year—they could not root the political dimension of the chemical crucifixion to the lyrical urge of the poem and painting freed from mechanical contingency. I publish the translation now, in San Francisco’s street permu-tables, as a Communist who understands that every “trend,” “fashion,” “hipness” of stance and gesture belongs to politics of feeling, that the eyes that we have “to be looked out of” (Olson) are these days also ears and noses, and that such conjunctions—as astrological as they are social—are parts of the metagalaxies within the ordinary breathing day and night as they reveal to each of us the role our own karmic history is unfolding in relation to ourselves-as-others, as the very others which, in former cycle, were but nemesistic has streaks of powerful cometary dust.”--Jack Hirschman, The Crucifixion, introduction, pg. 4. Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. Cocteau was massively influential on both the Surrealist and Dadaist movements, carving out a space for the avant-garde within spheres that had come to be dominated by a classical formalism, and rigid formulaic structures. Among Cocteau’s most influential works are Parade, a seminal work of the modern ballet, La Machine infernale, a play that is still performed some sixty years after it was written, such films as La Belle et le bete and La Sang d’un Poete (The Blood of a Poet), and his novel Les Enfants terrible, a study of adolescent alienation. A National Observer writer suggested that, “of the artistic generation whose daring gave birth to Twentieth Century Art, Cocteau came closest to being a Renaissance man.” Cocteau, according to Annette Insdorf in the New York Times, “left behind a body of work unequalled for its variety of artistic expression.” Offered today is the 1976 collection of poetry The Crucifixion. Translated by literary-legend-proletarian-poet-extraordinaire, Jack Hirschman (1933–2021), The Crucifixion stands as a powerful, and radical work of surrealist poetry. Dark, introspective, and mired in a dream-like atmosphere of surrealism, The Crucifixion is one of Cocteau’s most important and phenomenal works and stands as a pillar of surrealism. Signed at title page in thin blue ink by Jack Hirschman to Thomas Rain Crowe, an inscription reads: “For Tom, [indiscernible Cyrillic], comrade. Jack, June 76.” From the archive of Thomas Rain Crowe, the legendary American poet and co-authorial founder of the Second San Francisco Renaissance. For more information on the Thomas Rain Crowe archive (assembled & curated by Third Mind Books), see our book Starting From San Francisco: Thomas Rain Crowe in Conversation with Third Mind Books (item #3071) & the catalog for the Crowe archive (see item #1010), which contains several excerpts and quotations from the book as well as a full listing of the archive’s contents, which are now being offered for sale individually on the Third Mind Books site. Stapled wrappers. First edition though not explicated as such, first printing though similarly not explicated. In very fine condition with only minor wear to fine edges, very slight discoloration/sun-toning due to age, and minimal rust to staples. Very Fine. [Item #7300]

Price: $100.00