the visit to Paris [this's still EM's first lecture tour in Paris as the guest of my research centre: Centre de Poiétique Comparée, lasting the week 14 to 17 (including weekend)February 1990] "...of an apparently highly obscure person. But I never did claim to be celebrated in any way, you know" ...

40 Guernsey Grove, London SE24 9DE
January 13, 1990

Dear Wignesan,

Thanks for your call, and the work you are putting into the visit to Paris [this's still EM's first lecture tour in Paris as the guest of my research centre: Centre de Poiétique Comparée, lasting the week 14 to 17 (weekend)February 1990] of an apparently highly obscure person. But I never did claim to be celebrated in any way, you know. My main anxiety now is that I will know soon what exactly I have to lecture on - after all, the subjects are OK but the materials will have to be reassembled from the existing writings, to last 50 minutes each - and that takes time and energy - and term has started again, with a vengeance - i.e. I have very little time ! To set the record straight - titles:

- Law, Justice and Justification in William Faulkner - but I could do a talk on law in American literature - as an alternative or as well. And on Law and American Film.

- The Later work of William Burroughs - that is, stuff not in my book on him: Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, Western Lands, etc..

- The Real Needs of Man: Don DeLillo's novels - out shortly in print.

- Pound, Whitman and the American Epic Transmission - ditto.

- Pound and Music - a talk already given to the International Pound Conference.

- some kind of session, with tapes, on Radical American and English Poetics since 1950.

- some kind of session on Major Mid-Century British Poets - restricted to Basil Bunting, Hugh Macdiarmid and David Jones - with tapes.

- a talk on the non-American materials in recent major American poetry: North Africa, Buddhism, India, Latin and Central American cultures, North American Indian, etc..... - given at a Cross-Cultural Studies Conference, not yet published.

But I don't want necessarily to give all [underlined] of this stuff.

Poetry readings: OK, I'll read for is it ? - Whitman's shop in the evening and one other [I planned a reading at ATTICA bookshop which was gladly welcomed at first, but subsequently when I went around making the final arrangements was violently jettisoned] - and I'll read from currently available work - Book of Herne (I'll bring a few copies with me), Peace Projects....., Selected Poems, The New British Poetry, perhaps Legal Poems [all titles underlined] - and one or two new pieces.....

Books in print:

Selected Poems [underlined] I have asked North and South press [here, a hand-written note is added] - and I have asked Spanner to send Interrogation Rooms [underlined] to send copies to Attica, but they are very nervous about sale-or-return deals with foreign bookshops, after nasty past experiences.

The New British Poetry [underlined] published by Paladin, Grafton Books.

William Burroughs: The Algebra of Need [underlined] - Maryon Boyars - and in French from Bourgois in 1980, however much he may deny it..... [EM received no royalties for this book as far as I can tell. It must have cost a ton to get it translated and published.]

Blood on the Nash Ambassador [underlined], Radius/Century, Hutchinson.

The Rexroth Reader [underlined] is not in print, I doubt if the Faulkner Profile [underlined] is (try Routledge, London, the publishers), neither of the Ginsberg books is in print, the Penguin Companion [underlined] is but in America - as my bibliography says - and that's it .....

So much for negative fame !

I think the February dates are far too near for me to get all the preparation done - if you want to put it off until Easter, fine for me ! [Unfortunately, I had already agreed to most of the dates in the February week.] I'm getting nervous. Especially that my spoken French is bad to non-existent..... So, riddled with anxieties, I'm still looking forward to helping you out in Paris....., sort of......[???]

Let me know when to book the plane - I really don't care about the cheap fare and having to arrange my visit according to it - it's up to the organizing people your end to pay up as far as fares are concerned, considering I am not getting paid for anything, and nor for my food ! - only the bed ! [Not totally true for EM was paid for one talk and was taken out for lunch and dinner after the lectures by the hosts, and the hotel-room with toilet/shower-cum-breakfast included; besides I took him around from arrival to departure in my car, etc.] So I will book the ordinary [of course not first class] return fare - whenever.

I hope Paris in February is not like here - a grey pain in the proverbial rear !

Ok - another part of the "exchange". I'm to give a reading in London shortly - I'd better get some poems written ... so cheerio !

Eric

(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, 1990-2023