BRAU, Jean-Louis. Le Petit Livre Rouge de la Violence Révolutionnaire. Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Debresse. 1969.
12mo. Red vinyl jacket lettered in black to front cover; pp. 232, [8]; a little soiling to the edges of wrapper; crease to hinge of the white card to front, p. 114 loose, bottom right corners to pp. 115–18 torn away but not affecting text; very good.
A parody of The Little Red Book, published five years after the publication of Mao’s original, this copy inscribed by the author to the anticolonial politician, publisher and Tunisian journalist Béchir Ben Yahmed (1928–2021), then president of the France-Afrique Group.
The Lettrists were a countercultural movement founded by Isidore Isou in 1946. Jean-Louis Brau was part of the second generation of Lettrists which blurred the core principals of movement with Pop Art and Beat Generation influences. Five years prior to this publication, Chairman Mao had issued his Little Red Book.
In his publication, Brau argues that ‘all classification is arbitrary’ and oppressive structures have arisen from language. Lettrists fundamental aim was to reimagine the boundaries of language, and Brau’s collection of radical quotations in the book aim to consider the impact of language on maintaining the status quo and, more importantly, influencing revolution.
SKU: 2123510