The First Book of Grabinoulor (French Literature Series (Normal, Ill.).) Book

A key figure in France's modernist movement, Pierre Albert-Birot founded and edited CIS--an early 20th century avant-garde literary magazine--where he published and helped to shape the work of fellow Futurists, Dadaists, and Surrealists (including Apollinaire, Adre Breton, Louis Aragon, Philippe Soupault and the first texts of Tristan Tzara). Like its author, GRABINOULOR has been rediscovered only in the last few decades. Originally published in SIC in 1919 and praised by such writers as Apollinaire, Celine, Max Jacob, and Raymond Queneau, it did not appear in English until 1986. Smart, joyous, playfully philosophical and completely without despair, the novel follows the character Grabinoulor--"the happiest man in the world"--a child-like, satyric, and comical Parisian as he visits other planets, travels through time, and finds poetry wherever he goes.Read More