Book Description
Rizzoli is pleased to present the first English-language translation of Manual of St-Germain-des-Près by beloved French author Boris Vian. Paris in the fifties was an incredible place and time: with the end of the war, everything seemed possible. Vian's book, a guided tour of the left bank cafés, galleries, underground jazz clubs, theaters, and apartment salons captures the transformative culture of the existentialist and post-surrealistic circles. The list of luminaries he ran with includes Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau, Jean Genet, Alberto Giacometti, Juliette Greco, Raymond Queneau, Jacquês Prevert, Miles Davis, and, of course, Jean-Paul Sartre. Manual of St-Germain-des-Près is a chronicle of a period, a place, a circle, and a lifestyle, highlighted in this volume with sumptuous photographs by Georges Dudognon that illustrate Vian's words. A broader cultural context for Vian's work is provided in the introduction.


From the Inside Flap
The Manual of St-Germain-des-Prés is a “guide” to the legendary creative and intellectual playground of mid-20th-century Paris. With boundless energy and a delicious sense of humor, Boris Vian takes readers on a star-studded romp through the underground culture of jazz clubs, Left Bank cafés, surrealist and existentialist literature, and the various eccentrics and artists that made up this legendary scene.
Paris in the ‘50s was an incredible place and time: With the end of the war, everything seemed possible. The list of luminaries Vian ran with, and who are captured here in previously unpublished photographs, includes Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Juliette Gréco, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Genet, Jacques Prévert, and Jean Cocteau.
“Vian has been canonized by a whole generation of revolutionary young people…this fantasy of perishing purity is an affirmation of youth and innocence, laced with the biting humor of Jacques Prévert and Ionesco.”
― Newsweek

About the Author
Boris Vian (1920-1959) celebrated his extraordinary imagination with a tumultuous and intense career of writing, playing music, throwing and attending parties, and attacking any form of pretension or bureaucracy. His works range from bestselling sex-and-violence thrillers under the name of Vernon Sullivan to popular songs, plays, and short stories to the beautiful and surreal novels he wrote under his own name, L'Arrache Coeur (Heartsnatcher) and his masterpiece L'Ecume des jours (Froth on the Daydream). After Vian's untimely death he became a hero to the '68 student revolution, and his literary fame continues to grow in France and beyond. He has long been a cult favorite in England and America, and the arrival of this publication will only extend his fame.
Georges Dudognon (1922-2001) haunted the St-Germain-des-Près of postwar Paris, choosing photography as his way of recording the exuberance of the times.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Rizzoli is pleased to present the first English-language translation of Manual of St-Germain-des-Près by beloved French author Boris Vian. Paris in the fifties was an incredible place and time: with the end of the war, everything seemed possible. Vian's book, a guided tour of the left bank cafés, galleries, underground jazz clubs, theaters, and apartment salons captures the transformative culture of the existentialist and post-surrealistic circles. The list of luminaries he ran with includes Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau, Jean Genet, Alberto Giacometti, Juliette Greco, Raymond Queneau, Jacquês Prevert, Miles Davis, and, of course, Jean-Paul Sartre. Manual of St-Germain-des-Près is a chronicle of a period, a place, a circle, and a lifestyle, highlighted in this volume with sumptuous photographs by Georges Dudognon that illustrate Vian's words. A broader cultural context for Vian's work is provided in the introduction.

AUTHOR DESCRIPTION