Search Results: Romanian avant-garde and surrealism from Michael Fagan Fine Art & Rare Books

Bucharest: Universala, 1934 Octavo, wrappers, 202pp., with illustrations by Egon Schiele. One of 500 copies. Novel by Horia Bonciu (1893-1950)---novelist, journalist, poet, translator, noted for his unique, individual place in the Romanian avant-garde. He is known for his contributions in all literary fields. Associated with Romanian surrealists but never adhered to doctrine. Bonciu and Geo Bogza were both arrested on obscenity charges at the same time. The present work, "Luggage.Confessions of a Man on All Fours," was Bonciu's first novel. It is a highly modernist work, and includes drawings by Egon Schiele, emphasizing an expressionist bent that kept Bonciu apart from doctrinaire surrealism while employing elements thereof. Rare, with no institutional holdings in North America.

Bucharest: Universala, nd, 1937 Octavo, wrappers, 232pp. Max Blecher (1909-38) was a remarkable writer of genius who was confined to a body cast after being diagnosed with Pott’s disease at age 19. Blecher carried on regular correspondence with literary and philosophical luminaries including Gide and Heidegger, published in Breton’s La surrealism au service a la revolution, and won his place easily among the Romanian surrealists (Voronca, Bogza, Pana, etc) as a working member. His work is completely remarkable and fresh, and compares favorably with Bruno Schulz, Walser and Kafka in scope and depth. Two books were published in his lifetime and this soon after. He died shortly after completing Inimi Cicatrizate (Scarred Hearts), a novel depicting life, love and death in a sanitorium. This novel was finished immediately after Blecher’s surrealistic fantasy Intamplari in irealitatea imediata. Blecher's friend Sasa Pana had INIME CICATRIZATE published shortly after the author's… Read More

Bucharest: Vremea, nd, 1936 Octavo, wrappers, 88pp. Frontispiece portrait of author by S. Perahim. Max Blecher (1909-1938) writer of genius who contributed to the interwar Romanian avant-garde, a surrealist whose writings show strong kinship to Kafka, Bruno Schulz and Robert Walser, with the special talent of “making a home in misfortune" (Crohmalniceanu). His work began in 1930 with sketches published in the journal Bileta de papagal of Tudor Arghezi and his correspondence with Geo Bogza, I. Voronca, Sasa Pasa, Mihailescu et al in Romania as well as international literary and philosophical luminaries of the day. Marked by a tragic development at 19 (bedridden by a bone tuberculosis, Pott's disease) Blecher died at 29. Max Blecher’s prose is found in three novels, Intamplari in irealitatea imediata (1935), Inimi cicatrizate (1936) and Vizuita luminata, the latter only published in 1971. They are all of great literary significance. Only recently are they appearing in translation.… Read More

Bucharest: Funatia Pentru Literatura si Arta Regele Carol II, 1936 Octavo, wrappers, 32pp. Virgil Gheorghiu (1903-1977) was an avant-garde poet and musician who trafficked in surrealist circles and was the subject of a novel by Geo Bogza. This collection of poetry (The Great Hunt) achieved renown at the time of publication. Rare: worldcat finds only one North American listing.

Bucharest: Unu, 1933 Quarto 24 x 16 cm, wrappers, 40pp. Edition of 250 numbered copies.A major publication of the surrealist group UNU. Frontispiece has photo of the author's fingerprints. UNU (actually, unu, no upper case) was one of the strongest manifestations of the surrealist movement beyond Paris; it produced a journal from 1928 to 1935 and published several books by the participants who included Geo Bogza, Ilarie Voronca, Sasa Pana, Stephan Roll, and the legendary Urmuz. Bogza (1908-1993)a poet, theorist and journalist, was a rebellious social critic, highly controversial for his work, jailed twice for pornography and his acclaimed revelatory articles in the press during the 1930s. He is considered one of the most important surrealists in Romania. He was jailed for the present work, Poemul invectiva (Contemptuous Poem). Includes a flyer which is a catalog of unu publications with a foreword by Sasa Pana and a drawing by Victor Brauner Rare, only one copy of this first edition found in North… Read More

Bucharest: Negatia Negatiei., 1945 Small quarto 21.5x16.8 cm, wrappers, 112pp. "A Wolf Seen Through a Magnifying Glass" was written in 1942 and one the first of Luca's works to appear in 1945, when he formed a new surrealist group in Bucharest. A collection of poems in prose and with three vaporizations by the artist Dolfi Trost (1916-1966), this work was not published in French until 1968. Gherasim Luca (1913-1994) was the most important surrealist figure to emerge from postwar Romania. He wrote most of his work in Romanian although it was published in French. The earliest works are an exception. Worldcat finds only one copy in North American institutions. This copy has light soiling on front cover, spine wear.