Let’s Not Hit Each Other is now available from Black Scat Books!

This collection by the incomparable Alphonse Allais includes a flying whale, an inflatable colonel, telepathic snails, a summer crime, the insularization of France, missionary parrots, an amphibious herring, twin cousins, and proposals for billboard dogs, deodorized urine, calming the sea with varnish, and crossing the English Channel with swings. You will also meet Mr. Fish, who travels with capsules of American air, presaging Duchamp’s “Paris Air” by decades. This is the first English translation of this remarkable volume, first published in 1900.

Translated, annotated, and introduced by Doug Skinner, and designed by Norman Conquest. This edition includes an original portrait of Allais by Corinne Taunay.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

“The Game of Don’ts and Old Maid” was published in 1905 by McLoughlin. Players are instructed to collect pairs of cards showing wretched specimens of humanity, thereby teaching them (the players) not to be stupid, hoggish, silly, proud, untidy, a crank, a scold, etc. One of the things not to be is an old maid, so one of the cards can be removed to play Old Maid. This is our 33rd Old Maid, and here she is. You can’t read it on this scan, but the book she’s carrying is The Novels of Irving Bacheller:

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

If you’ve ever wondered how Santa Claus operates, here’s the answer. This illustration is taken from Flying Saucers Close Up, by John W. Dean, published in 1969 by Saucerian Books. Please click on it to see it better. Happy Holidays!

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Winter is here, and the birds are flying south. This steel engraving by George Cruikshank is taken from The George Cruikshank Table-Book, Bell and Daldy, London, 1869. Please click to enlarge.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The apparently tireless Norman Conquest (aka Derek Pell) has started a new magazine. It’s called TYPO, which he describes as a “Journal of Lettrism, Surrealist Semantics, and Constrained Design.” He and farewell debut are the editors, and I’m on the masthead for “Special Collections.” I contributed a stereoscopic word ladder, as well as brief articles on Masonic cipher rituals, mnemonic alphabets, and monograms from the Italian Renaissance. You’ll also find delightful material on asemic poetry, French graffiti, summantics, Dada typography, and other topics from Marc-Alain Barbot, Tom Barrett, Michael Betancourt, Isabelle B.L, Restif de la Bretonne, Mamie Caton, Caroline Crépiat, Art Dandy, Ange Degheest, Jean-Pierre Duffour, Luc Fierens, Jack Granath, Isidore Isou, Amy Kurman, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Giambattista Palatino, Raymond Queneau, Reese Saxment, Karen Shaw, Corinne Taunay, John J. Trause, Tristan Tzara, Cal Wenby, and Femke van der Wijk.

And you can find it on Amazon!

There’s an interview with Derek Pell here, and a review here.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

I had the honor of translating Corinne Taunay’s booklet Marcel Duchamp: Paris Air in New York, now available from Black Scat Books on Amazon.

Marcel Duchamp‘s exile in New York, in 1915-1917, brought him sudden fame and changed the course of his career. Corinne Taunay’s lively and witty study describes the scandals of Nude Descending a Staircase and Fountain, the creation of the first readymades, and the evolution of Duchamp’s artistic strategies. With 19 illustrations in black and white and in color.

Corinne Taunay is a visual artist and art historian who has contributed to many publications in Europe and the US.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The new expanded edition of Merde à la Belle Époque is now available from Black Scat Books! I’ve selected, translated, annotated, and introduced scatological songs, stories, poems, and playlets from some of the most inventive and eccentric writers of the golden age of Parisian Bohemia: Alphonse Allais, George Auriol, Georges Courteline, Charles Cros, J. Eschbach, André Gill, Edmond Haraucourt, Vincent Hyspa, Alfred Jarry, Jules Jouy, Maurice Mac-Nab, Armand Masson, Arthur Rimbaud, Rodolphe Salis, Erik Satie, and Henry Somm. Included is a complete translation of Jouy’s relentlessly pottymouth paper Le Journal des Merdeux, which was quickly seized by the police.

This collection was first published as a chapbook in 2014, and now has more stuff in it. It’s designed by Norman Conquest, and is available on Amazon.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The 26th issue of Black Scat Review is now available! I contributed an alphabet, “Partners in Crime,” and my translation of “Upside-Down Stories: Mineral Waters,” by Charles Cros and Émile Goudeau (from my edition of those stories). The other contributors are a fine bunch: Tim Newton Anderson, Tom Barrett,  Margot Block, Robert James Cross, Farewell Debut,  Debra Di Blasi, Fernando Fidanza, Larry Fondation, Peter Gambaccini, Eckhard Gerdes, Rhys Hughes, Harold Jaffe, Amy Kurman, Michael Leigh, Martha McCollough, Jim McMenamin, Michael Pollentine, Frank Pulaski, Paul Rosheim, Saira Viola, and Tom Whalen.

And you can find it on Amazon.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

My novel Nominata is now available from Black Scat Books! You can get it on Amazon! I’ve been working on it for years: it’s not long, but it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do with it. Here’s the blurb from Black Scat Books:

Nominata has gone missing, and her old friend Antonima is looking for her. Can the seven regulars in the Taproom help? Why are there strange lights and noises in the abandoned observatory? And what does the number 5040 have to do with all this?

Doug Skinner describes his novel as “an interactive verbal toy,” and Black Scat Books urges caution in handling. On the surface, the text is playful, comic, and wayward. Further immersion, however, reveals elaborate constraints, cross references, and parallels, all creating an artificial world in which everything is a reflection of everything else, including itself. All that and slapstick too!   

And there’s a contest, for you competitive types:

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

My translation of The Art of Noises is now available from Black Scat Books!

Luigi Russolo’s treatise on enriching music with noises was published in Milan in 1916. It contains his 1913 Futurist manifesto on noises, as well as his accounts of building noise instruments, his riotous concerts, his notation, and analyses of the noises of nature and technology. My translation sticks closely to Russolo’s ebullient style, and adds notes and an introduction on contemporary receptions and on Russolo’s later work. All of Russolo’s scores and instruments are lost, but his ideas have inspired generations of experimental musicians.

This marks the tenth anniversary of Black Scat Books, and editor Derek Pell (aka Norman Conquest) designed a beautiful edition for the occasion. You can find it on Amazon.

For those keeping track, this is my first Italian translation since 2002, when I translated Giovanni Battista Nazari’s alchemical dream vision Three Dreams for Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks in Glasgow. My, how time flies.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)