{"product_id":"queneau-raymond-francois-le-lionnais-postface-cent-mille-milliards-de-poemes","title":"QUENEAU, Raymond; François LE LIONNAIS ( postface ). Cent mille milliards de poèmes.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eQUENEAU, Raymond; François LE LIONNAIS (\u003ci\u003epostface\u003ci\u003e).\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e Cent mille milliards de poèmes. \u003ci\u003eParis: Gallimard\u003c\/i\u003e. 1961.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4to. Original white cloth, lettered in red and black to front board and spine, publisher’s device in blind to front; unpaginated; two light stains to top left corner of front cover, in acetate jacket (seemingly supplied); light dust-soiling to front free endpaper, else near fine; authorial inscription ‘á Maurice Nadeau amicalement Queneau’ in blue ink to half-title (\u003ci\u003esee below\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFirst edition, no. 2,845 of 250 hors-commerce copies numbered 2,751–3,000, inscribed by Raymond Queneau to the French writer, critic, and editor Maurice Nadeau.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early product of the legendary Oulipo group, \u003ci\u003eCent mille milliards de poèmes\u003c\/i\u003e (1961) is one of the most celebrated experiments in combinatorial literature. The work consists of ten sonnets, each line printed on a separate strip of paper, allowing the reader to recombine them at will and generate ‘one hundred thousand billion’ different poems. Queneau described the book as a ‘machine for making poems’, a finite set of verses capable, in theory, of occupying a reader for ‘nearly two hundred million years’ (\u003ci\u003etrans.\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eProvenance:\u003c\/i\u003e From the library of Maurice Nadeau (1911–2013). Editor of \u003ci\u003eCombat\u003c\/i\u003e under Albert Camus and later of his own publishing house, \u003cstrong\u003eNadeau played a pivotal role in promoting writers including Georges Bataille, Jean Genet, Henri Michaux, Henry Miller, and Queneau himself.\u003c\/strong\u003e He also remained one of the most prominent defenders of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s literary importance despite the controversy surrounding the latter’s political views.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSKU: \u003c\/strong\u003e2122758\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sotherans","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":63837407117689,"sku":"2122758","price":2000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0045\/2178\/7426\/files\/2122758.jpg?v=1783346048","url":"https:\/\/sotherans.co.uk\/products\/queneau-raymond-francois-le-lionnais-postface-cent-mille-milliards-de-poemes","provider":"Sotherans","version":"1.0","type":"link"}