Anthology of Black Humor

Anthology of Black Humor

The Anthology of Black Humor (in French "Anthologie de l'humour noir") is an anthology of 45 writers edited by André Breton. It was first published in 1939 in Paris by Éditions du Sagittaire and its distribution was immediately banned by the Vichy government. It got reprinted in 1947 after Breton's return from exile, with a few additions. In 1966, Breton, "having resisted the temptation to add more names"cite book |last=Breton|first=André|authorlink|title=Anthology of Black Humor|pages=pp. 7|] , published the book again and called this edition "the definitive".

The anthology not only introduced some until then almost unknown or forgotten writers, it also coined the term "black humor" (as Breton said, until then the term had meant nothing, unless someone imagined jokes about black people cite book |last=Breton|first=André|authorlink|title=Anthology of Black Humor|pages=pp. 7|] ). The term became globally used since then. The choice of authors was done entirely by Breton and according to his taste which he explains in the Foreword (called "The Lightning Rod", a term suggested by Lichtenberg), a work of great depth (Breton was the main theoretician of the Surrealist movement) that starts with contemplating Rimbaud´s words "Emanations, explosions." from Rimbaud's last poem "The barrack-room of night : Dream" [ [http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Chambree.html Mag4.net Arthur Rimbaud - Derniers Vers : La Chambrée de Nuit ] ] . The authors, each introduced by a preface by Breton and represented by a few pages from their writings, are sorted chronologically. The book is still in print. It was translated into several languages; into English by Mark Polizzotti in 1997.

List of authors from the 1966 edition

* Jonathan Swift
* D.-A.-F.de Sade
* Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
* Charles Fourier
* Thomas de Quincey
* Pierre-François Lacenaire
* Petrus Borel
* Christian Dietrich Grabbe
* Edgar Allan Poe
* Xavier Forneret
* Charles Baudelaire
* Lewis Carroll
* Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
* Charles Cros
* Friedrich Nietzsche
* Isidore Ducasse (Comte de Lautréamont)
* Joris-Karl Huysmans
* Tristan Corbière
* Germain Nouveau
* Arthur Rimbaud
* Alphonse Allais
* Jean-Pierre Brisset
* O. Henry
* André Gide
* John Millington Synge
* Alfred Jarry
* Raymond Roussel
* Francis Picabia
* Guillaume Apollinaire
* Pablo Picasso
* Arthur Cravan
* Franz Kafka
* Jakob van Hoddis
* Marcel Duchamp
* Hans Arp
* Alberto Savinio
* Jacques Vaché
* Benjamin Péret
* Jacques Rigaut
* Jacques Prévert
* Salvador Dalí
* Jean Ferry
* Leonora Carrington
* Gisèle Prassinos
* Jean-Pierre Duprey

References and external links

* [http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100987330 Info from City Lights, its English publisher]


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