This book is full of shit!

But I mean that in the best sense of the word. This rare anthology features scatological texts by the following period luminaries: Alphonse Allais, George Auriol, Georges Courteline, Edmond Haraucourt, Vincent Hyspa, Maurice Mac-Nab, and Erik Satie.

It has been tastefully compiled & translated by the great Doug Skinner—the man behind Black Scat’s sublime translation of Alphonse Allais’s CAPTAIN CAP: HIS ADVENTURES, HIS IDEAS, HIS DRINKS.

For those of you too shy to carry around the limited print edition of MERDE, the publisher has also released an electronic version which can be discreetly read on your iPad

I advise everyone to obtain a copy HERE.

Teen Queen Dreams

 

 

How many people can honestly say “I was a teenage Surrealist”? 

The only person I know of is the writer Gisèle Prassinos—discovered at the age of 14 by
André Breton.  

Black Scat Books has just published a marvelous, limited edition collection of 20 texts by Prassinos—half of them written when she 14 and 15—lovingly translated by Ellen Nations. 

SURREALIST TEXTS is illustrated with haunting surreal watercolor paintings by Bruce Hutchinson.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER A COPY

Goddess

• Gisèlle Prassinos‏

Absurd Words, Puns, & Fun

It’s all packed into this huge collection of Captain Cap tales by the great Alphonse Allais:

CAPTAIN CAP: HIS ADVENTURES, HIS IDEAS, HIS DRINKS
Translated from the French by Doug Skinner.

370 pages -- profusely illustrated with witty drawings by Skinner, plus copious notes on the translation. In addition to the complete, unabridged text of the original 1902 French edition, the book includes eight uncollected stories featuring the good old Captain. There’s also a “Cappendix” of rare historical drawings & photos,

You can grab a discounted copy on AMAZON here.

Merdre!

HOW I BECAME AN IDIOT by Francisque Sarcey (Alphonse Allais)
Translated and with an introduction & annotations by Doug Skinner
Absurdist Texts & Documents – Interim Edition No. 00

“Francisque Sarcey (1827-1899) was, for much of his career, the most powerful theatrical critic in Paris. He was the perfect model of the blunt bourgeois, championing common sense, anti-intellectualism, and traditional values. He favored light, commercial fare, and railed against Ibsen and Jarry.

He was, predictably, a prime target for young artists. Alphonse Allais took the ridicule to new heights: from 1886 to 1893, he wrote a regular column for Le Chat Noir, which he simply signed as Francisque Sarcey. The pseudo-Sarcey became a grotesque caricature of the smug middle class, a sort of proto-Ubu: an obese, gluttonous, lecherous, hypocritical dolt, prattling on about his constipation and hemorrhoids, in loosely-knit sentences studded with clichés.”—Doug Skinner

HOW I BECAME AN IDIOT includes four of Allais’s nastiest columns,

Limited Edition of 60 copies. perfect-bound. $12.50

Don’t be an idiot, order your copy right here.