Exact Change, Leanora Carrington, & The Hearing Trumpet
Another small publisher of avant-garde type literature that I stumbled upon when I was working at the bookstore back in the 90s was Exact Change. They publish translations of cult classics like the Songs of Maldoror by Leautremont and the beautiful writings of the English writer Denton Welch. They share some author and title overlap with Atlas Press, who I love (see previous blog post from a few weeks back). Also, they publish in a beautiful odd-sized trade paperback format, with great cover art. They are beautiful books.
I’ve ordered a bunch of their books and one of my favorites is The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington. Leonora Carrington was born in England in 1917 and spent ten years of her childhood in Crookhey Hall, a Gothic revivalist mansion. She cites this as an experience that activated her artistic imagination.
Leonora was exposed to surrealist art early on in her life, and having been expelled from a couple of schools after first being educated by tutors, nuns, and baronesses, she was sent to the Mrs. Penrose Academy of Arts in Florence. She then did a stint at the Chelsea School of Art in London as well as other prestigious art schools. She started painting and was championed by the poet and patron Edward James who arranged a gallery show of her work in New York at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in 1947.
Earlier in her career she met Max Ernst in London and had always loved his work. They became romantically involved and moved to the south of France and supported each other’s work until the Nazis ruined everything (of course). Max wound up in New York after trials and tribulations as a “degenerate artist”, and Leonora did too—but went on to spend most of her life in Mexico City with other surrealist writers and artists. She went on to become one of the founding members of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Mexico in the 1970s.
She was also a writer! I haven’t read any other books by her but The Hearing Trumpet was completed by Carrington in 1950 and wasn’t published until the early 1970’s; first in French and then in English. This was one of the first Exact Change published books that I picked up. :)
Here is a nice intro to the book that I lifted off the Exact Change website:
The Hearing Trumpet is the story of 92-year-old Marian Leatherby, who is given the gift of a hearing trumpet only to discover that what her family is saying is that she is to be committed to an institution. But this is an institution where the buildings are shaped like birthday cakes and igloos, where the Winking Abbess and the Queen Bee reign, and where the gateway to the underworld is open. It is also the scene of a mysterious murder. Occult twin to Alice in Wonderland, The Hearing Trumpet is a classic of fantastic literature that has been translated and celebrated throughout the world.
“Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days.” — Luis Buñuel
“A strange and wonderful novel… this book is a masterpiece of Surrealistic fantasy, combining rich symbolic suggestion with a gripping narrative.”
— Library Journal
Its a wonderful, magical book and you should read it! I’ll put a link to Exact Change Press below. Also, there is a very funny story from one of my many weird spiritual quests that connects with this book in particular. It involved me going to a reading circle for a group that was advertising with flyers in my neighborhood. I was a complete stranger, and nobody would talk to me…but I will save that for next week!
You should buy books from Exact Change!
From the “About” section on the Exact Change website:
Exact Change publishes books of experimental literature with an emphasis on Surrealism, Dada, Pataphysics, and other nineteenth and twentieth century avant-garde art movements.
The press was founded in 1989 by Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, known outside publishing as musicians from the bands Damon & Naomi, and Galaxie 500.
Pretty cool right? Galaxie 500! :) here is the link! Exact Change
I will tell you my funny story next week, I promise.