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Paris: The Vendome Press, 1948. First Editions of the four novels written by French polymath Boris Vian as Vernon Sullivan, published in France by Editions Scorpion and The Vendome Press between 1947 and 1950. All are the first French editions except the infamous cornerstone, "I Shall Spit on Your Graves," which is the first English-language Edition, published by the Vendome Press in Paris in 1948 (preceded only by the 1946 French edition, not included here).
"I Shall Spit on Your Graves," a bizarre parody of the hard-boiled crime fiction that was enjoying great popularity in France at the time, has a freestyle approach to topics that were considered obscene in the mid-1940s, and is awash in violence, rape, and general anarchy. The story is set in the American South of its time, and was purportedly written in 15 days by Vian, who in this edition writes an "introduction" documenting his first meeting with the fictitious Vernon Sullivan, who he describes as an expatriate African-American writer. It became an immediate cult sensation, and instantly drew criticism for the usual reasons, but that criticism is somewhat more remarkable in this case because it was published in Paris, a city that would only a few years later would become a popular refuge for the likes of Nabokov, William Burroughs, and Henry Miller. Vian was eventually revealed as the book's author, and the book was banned in France in 1949. Vian was later tried and convicted of offending public morals and was fined. Ten years later, in an event not unlike something that might have happened in one of his novels, Vian died of a heart attack during the screening of a French film adaptation of "Graves" (to which he contributed to the screenplay and subsequently disowned).
Vian's legacy in France as a writer, poet, playwright, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer transcends what most would consider the boundaries of a pulp novelist. He acted as a liaison for Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis in Paris, wrote highly literate fiction, penned one of the first French rock and roll songs, and collaborated with Darius Milhaud on the opera "Fiesta."
"I Shall Spit on Your Graves," by far the rarest title in this collection, is Very Good or better in perfect-bound wrappers, with a slight lean, a lightly toned spine panel, a couple of short closed tears, and some wear at the spine ends. A touch of the usual toning to the page edges, but not extensive. The remaining three Sullivan novels are Very Good to Fine, each with only light wear. "Et on tuera tous les affreux" has a spine lean. The four volumes are housed together in a custom quarter-leather clamshell box. [Book #113983]
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