QUENEAU, Raymond.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

L'Instant Fatal. First trade edition, service de presse copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title to his longtime friend and collaborator, "A Georges Bataille, cordialement, Queneau". The editor's compliments card is loosely inserted. While Queneau met and briefly joined the Surrealists, his friendship with Bataille developed later, when he contributed to Documents, Bataille's first venture as a magazine editor. The publication was a challenge to mainstream surrealism, described by Bataille as a "war machine against received ideas" (quoted by Ades and Bradley); Queneau also contributed to a vehemently anti-Andre Breton pamphlet written by Bataille. Both shared a love of Hegel: Bataille was a regular attendee at Alexandre Kojève's seminars on the philosopher, which Queneau later edited and published. L'Instant Fatal was first published in a limited edition of 250 copies only by Aux Nourritures in 1946. There was also a limited issue of this edition, comprising 13 copies printed on Lafuma Navarre.

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