Prevert, Jacques

Selections from Paroles

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1958. First Edition. Softcover. “The little man who sang without ceasing / the little man who danced in my head / the little man of youth / broke his shoelace / and all the booths at the fair / all at once collapsed / and in the silence of this fair / in the desert of this head / I heard your happy voice / your torn and fragile voice / childish and desolate / coming from afar and calling me / and I put my hand upon my heart / where shivered / bloodily / the seven glass slivers of your starlit laughter.”--Jacques Prevert, “The Shattered Mirror,” pg. 39. Jacques Prevert (1900-1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems are often about life in Paris and life after World War II. He participated actively in the Surrealist movement, and together with the writers Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) and Marcel Duhamel (1900-1977), he was a member of the Rue du Château group. He was also a member of the agitprop Groupe Octobre. Prevert was quite prolific, as evidenced by the more than 1,500 pages of poetry and notes gathered for the volume Oeuvres Completes. According to Stephen Romer in the Times Literary Supplement, Prevert was also "famously careless about what happened to his poems," so the editors' ability to track down these works is impressive indeed. Regarding the poetry itself, Romer commented, "While [Prevert's] handling of linguistic device is usually deft and brilliant, his meaning could not be plainer; and we don't need to scruple about that word in Prevert." Offered today is the 1958, English edition of Prevert’s debut work of poetry Paroles. A scathing polemic, and deep poetic analysis of the Nazi Occupation of France, Paroles much like Jean-Paul Sartre’s (1905-1980) Age of Reason Trilogy examines the daily life and miseries of those under the all-consuming, brutal boot of fascism. Prevert’s reserved, abstract style blends with a visceral depiction of reality to illuminate the boiling melancholy and discontent of French life under the Nazi regime. From back cover: “In the years immediately following World War II, Jacques Prevert spoke more directly to and for the French who had come of age under the Occupation than any other contemporary poet, if the enormous success of PAROLES is any indication. First published in 1946, it was almost immediately reprinted, and by 1952 there were 200,000 copies in print. Yet the present volume is the first book by Prevert to be published in the United States–a curious fact, considering the affinities that exist between his best writing and such American ‘poetry of dissent’ as that emanating from various literary undergrounds here.” A rare volume from one of the finest French poets of the 20th century. From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed friend in the UK who managed the legendary Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England with Bill Butler (1934-1977, the famed American-expatriate bookseller & publisher). From the late 1960s until the early 1970s, Unicorn proffered & published many outstanding productions by WSB, J.G. Ballard et al., some of which have become the scarcest, all-but-unobtainable Beat-&-Beyond collectibles (see for example our item # 8217). After prevailing against censorious harassment efforts, Unicorn closed & Butler shortly thereafter met his untimely demise. Cupidi went on to found the Public House Bookshop in Brighton, which had a long & successful run but is now also closed, and he still resides there. We have been honored to obtain what Cupidi has termed “The Last Hurrah,” all the remaining treasures of Unicorn and Public House, some of which have become the stuff of Beat-&-Beyond Myth & which now comes from our custodial hands and passes to yours. Softcover in sewn bindings, published as the ninth number in the iconic Pocket Poets Series by City Lights Books. Cook (PPS) pgs. 31-32; (CLB) No. 10(a), pgs 11-13. In relatively fine condition with minor wear to fine edges, moderate creasing/wear at spine, mild age-toning throughout, light spotting/staining to front, back covers & spine, and slight chipping at front and back near top. Interior very fine with only slight fading throughout. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #8197]

Price: $50.00