What a Life!

(Surrealism.) E.V.L [Lucas] & G.M. [George Morrow].

What a Life!

An Autobiography. Illustrated by Whiteley's.

Description: FIRST EDITION, illustrated throughout with pictures lifted from the Whiteley's catalogue, the half-title soiled with chip at bottom corner, a few faint spots to verso of this and foot of title-page, the odd spot to borders further in, one page with a small mark to fore-margin, pp. 128, foolscap 8vo, later blue boards, manuscript label to backstrip, ownership inscription to flyleaf, good

Publication Details: Methuen, 1911

Notes: Scarce. An uproarious piece of proto-surrealism, recognised as such by Alfred H. Barr in the exhibition that he curated and catalogued for MoMA in the 1930s - it is a pictorial collage novel that uses the source-text of a department-store catalogue to create a fictional autobiography. The two authors, E.V. Lucas & George Morrow, were Punch stalwarts, who could not have predicted the afterlife of their jeu d'esprit - although lacking the grotesquerie, it bears a clear resemblance to Max Ernst's 'Une Semaine de bonté' in its repurposing of rather staid illustrations into a witty tour de force...moreScarce. An uproarious piece of proto-surrealism, recognised as such by Alfred H. Barr in the exhibition that he curated and catalogued for MoMA in the 1930s - it is a pictorial collage novel that uses the source-text of a department-store catalogue to create a fictional autobiography. The two authors, E.V. Lucas & George Morrow, were Punch stalwarts, who could not have predicted the afterlife of their jeu d'esprit - although lacking the grotesquerie, it bears a clear resemblance to Max Ernst's 'Une Semaine de bonté' in its repurposing of rather staid illustrations into a witty tour de force. HIDE

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Price: £2,000

Subject: Modern First Edition

Published Date: 1911

Stock Number: 69369

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