Sims Reed Rare Books×

London Bulletin. Vols. 1 – 20. (All Published)

London Bulletin

London. London Gallery. 1938, Apr–1940, Jun
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A complete set of the London Bulletin, the most influential English Surrealist periodical.

Edited by E.L.T. Mesens, this was the most influential English language Surrealist magazine and the only one to be published in England. Although it described itself as an avant-garde review, Surrealist contributions were numerous; the periodical also featured Constructivism and more abstract art, not Surrealist in tone, but Surrealism was the dominant mode throughout.

Contributors included Paul Eluard, Herbert Read, Mesens, André Breton, Nash, Tanguy, Beckett, Peret, Picabia, George Reavey, Humphrey Jennings, Roland Penrose, Eileen Agar, John Banting, Conroy Maddox and many others.

The series includes three double numbers and the final triple number: 4 / 5: 'The Impact of Machines'; 8 / 9: 'Living Art in England'; 15 / 16: 'Picasso in English Collections'; 18 - 20: 'Surrealism'. In this set, issue 1 includes the original printed order slip on thin blue paper, loosely inserted.

' ... it was not until 1938, when E. L. T. Mesens published the Bulletin of the London Gallery, of which he had become director in 1937, that the Surrealist group in England found a voice, although theirs was not the only voice in it.' (Dawn Ades).

'London Bulletin has assumed the position of the only avant garde publication in this country concerned with contemporary poetry and art. Although its first number was practically a monograph, by various hands, concentrated on the work of the surrealist René Magritte, it has rapidly expanded its range, reflecting besides exhibitions of painting, other activities of living interest in its pages. The July double number, devoted to 'The Impact of Machines', further increased the value of its position by arousing the attention of numerous readers abroad ... '. (Introduction to issue no.7).

[Ades 14.53, see pp. 349 - 357; Fonds Destribats 403].
20 vols. in 15. 4to. (250 x 190 mm). Profusely illustrated throughout in colour and monochrome with text and illustration on a variety of paper stock of differing colour; the final triple number (18 - 20) also includes two hors-texte full-page woodcuts in two colours by Stanley William Hayter and John Banting and John Buckland Wright's original monochrome woodcut. Original publisher's wrappers, each of a different colour and with titles to front covers in various colours, later blue cloth chemise with leather title label to spine and matching slipcase.
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