Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A Season In Hell: Arthur Rimbaud, Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe.





A Season In Hell: Arthur Rimbaud, Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe. Poetry by Arthur Rimbaud, photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe, illustrations by Patti Smith, translation by Oliver Bernard. Mörel Books, 2010. 92pp., illustrated throughout, 18,5x12,5cm. Limited edition of 500 (out-of-print).

Book description:

" 'Once, if I remember correctly, my life was a feast at which all hearts opened and all wines flowed.

One day I sat beauty on my knees - And I found her bitter, - And I reviled her!...'

Thus, 20 year old Arthur Rimbaud starts his revolutionary prose poem 'A Season in Hell' shaking and leveling poetic foundations, - his words remaining as shocking today as they were in the late 19th century!

Rimbaud’s status has remained legendary and his influence runs through literature into the heart of the arts and out the mouth of Rock and Roll!

In this booklet, designed in the same style as Rimbaud’s 1873 self published edition, Patti Smith lends us her illustrations of Rimbaud, as well as a selection of photographs from the illustrious late Robert Mapplethorpe."