Including a number of short essays by Bataille and Leiris on aspects of the other's work as well as excerpts on Bataille from Leiris' diaries, this collection of correspondence throws new light on two of Surrealism's most radical dissidents. In the autumn of 1924, just before André Breton published the Manifeste du surréalisme, two young men met in Paris for the first time. Georges Bataille, 27, starting work at the Bibliothèque Nationale; Michel Leiris, 23, beginning his studies in ethnology. Within a few months, they were both members of the Surrealist group, although their adherence to Surrealism (unlike their affinities with it) would not last long: in 1930 they were among the signatories of "Un cadavre," the famous tract against Breton, the "Machiavelli of Montmartre," as Leiris put it. But their friendship would endure for more than 30 years, and their correspondence, assembled here for the first time in English, would continue until the death of Bataille in 1962.
Über den Autor Georges Bataille
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Georges Bataille wurde 1897 als Sohn reicher Bauern in der Auvergne geboren. Er studierte Bibliothekswissenschaften, seit 1922 Konservator an verschiedenen Bibliotheken. Im Umkreis der Surrealisten Zusammenarbeit mit Carl Einstein und Michel Leiris an der 1929 gegründeten Zeitschrift "Documents". 1935 schloß er sich der antifaschistischen Intellektuellen-Gruppe "Contre Attaque" an, 1936 gründete er mit Michel Leiris und Roger Caillois das College de Sociologie, 1946 die noch heute existierende Zeitschrift "Critique", die er bis zu seinem Tode im Juli 1962 herausgab. Auf deutsch erschienen zuletzt von Bataille "Die Tränen des Eros" (1981).
