ISOU, Isidore. L’Agrégation d’un nom et d’un Messie.

ISOU, Isidore. L’Agrégation d’un nom et d’un Messie.Lettrism and Antisemitism ISOU, Isidore. LAgrgation dun nom et dun Messie. Paris: Gallimard.[1947]. 8vo. Publishers wrappers printed in red and black, partly uncut; pp. 447, [5]; a few small chips to spine, split to upper joint neatly restored, slight dampstaining and a few spots to spine; uniformly browned; presentation inscription to half title Elie Szapiro avec les hommages dun auteur lhomme qui a tant fait pour introduire mon oeuvre Toulouse, avec

Lettrism and Antisemitism

ISOU, Isidore. L’Agrégation d’un nom et d’un Messie. Paris: Gallimard.[1947].

8vo. Publisher’s wrappers printed in red and black, partly uncut; pp. 447, [5]; a few small chips to spine, split to upper joint neatly restored, slight dampstaining and a few spots to spine; uniformly browned; presentation inscription to half-title ‘à Elie Szapiro | avec les hommages d’un auteur à l’homme | qui a tant fait pour | introduire mon oeuvre à Toulouse, avec mes amitiés’; two newspaper clippings loosely inserted (1947 and 23 January 1967); a good copy.

Presentation copy of the uncommon first edition of the second book by the founder of Lettrism, warmly inscribed by the author to the gallerist, bibliophile, and Judaica expert Elie Szapiro (1939–2013), co-founder of Galerie Saphir, with thanks for introducing Isou’s work to Toulouse.

L’Agrégation d’un nom et d’un messie was praised as early as 1948 by Georges Bataille, in his journal Critique, as being a book ‘childish, brilliant, as laughable and as embarrassing as a bare backside.’ This polemical work, which alone would suffice to establish Isou’s literary reputation, is an outstanding autobiography recounting the different stages of his formation, from his upbringing in Romania and his escape to France during the Second World War to his arrival in Paris with the aim of founding Lettrism, including his vision of himself as the New Messiah and marvellous descriptions of the act of reading.

Gallimard, accused of antisemitism during the Second World War, may have tried to use the Jewish Isou’s self-promoting epic to avoid postwar problems.

Never reissued and rarely seen without false mentions of later editions and different covers, this original edition includes a very rare dedication by Isidore Isou to Elie Szapiro, inscribed on the occasion of a group of Lettrist events that took place in Toulouse some twenty years after the book’s publication. Loosely inserted is a fierce and critical 1947 newspaper clipping, itself tinged with antisemitism: ‘Talent bursts forth. The German atrocities have unleashed Mr Isou’s polemical genius. He does not want to lose his life in lamentations before the temple wall […] From p. 269 onwards, you will no longer be able to smile or yawn. Mr Isou’s childish pride becomes the pride of a miraculous rabbi. He will demonstrate to you that his people are the foundation of the world … Shema [Israel]! Wake up … Mr Isou is calling his brothers to battle … and insults the Gospels, Christ, the Church’ (trans.). Also inserted is a cutting related to the Toulouse Lettrist events of January 1967, where Isou met Szapiro.

OCLC finds six copies in the US (Cornell, NYPL, SUNY Buffalo, Syracuse, Umass Amherst, Yale), to which Library Hub adds three copies in the UK (BL, Bodleian, Manchester).

SKU: 2123540