Foutaises

This booklet, published anonymously, was printed in 91 copies, all numbered by hand by Raymond Queneau.

Michel Gallimard’s copy, with this justification: “n° 8 / H13 O78 pour M.G.,” which at last allows us to establish the exact print run of the booklet. Deluxe copies have rarely been mentioned — at most a vague reference to “a few copies” — and the ordinary copies (“O”) on alfa paper, numbering 78, never revealed the existence of copies on Hollande paper (“H”), numbering 13.

On the sturdy ground of the most robust puns (“Les Huns piquant des deux arrivèrent à Troyes quatre à quatre”), one finds here and there marvelous little touches of whimsy and flashes of irony: “Dieu : le non-être qui a le mieux réussi à faire parler de lui.” These “foutaises” were reprinted almost in full in Les Œuvres complètes de Sally Mara, in 1962, as Sally plus intime (1962).

An ideal provenance: Michel Gallimard, son of Robert, who was “only” Gaston’s nephew but was in fact his spiritual son, entrusted with running the Pléiade collection as soon as the war ended, succeeding Jean Paulhan. From 1949, Raymond Queneau led, on behalf of the Encyclopédie de la Pléiade, the famous survey “Pour une bibliothèque idéale,” published in the white collection in 1956. He was above all one of Albert Camus’s closest friends, and died at his side in the tragic accident of 4 January 1960.

Dutel, Bibliographie des ouvrages érotiques, 1603.