Eric Losfeld (1923? - 1979)
Related: erotic literature - adult comics - book publishing - French literature - Joëlle Losfeld (daughter)
Published works by: Georges De Coulteray - Jean Rollin - Ado Kyrou - Guy Peellaert - Jean-Claude Forest
Eric Losfeld's Éditions Le Terrain Vague is my favourite publishing house because they published art books and literary fiction (Ionesco, Topor, Arabal, Benjamin Péret, Marcel Duchamp, Boris Vian), eroticism (Emmanuelle), comic books (Barbarella), film magazines (Midi Minuit Fantastique and Positif) and generally controversial books; in short the very broad spectrum of human interest. Internet information on Losfeld is few and scattered, the best starting point to find out more about him is his autobiography Endetté comme une mule: Ou, La Passion d'éditer (1979). Similar European publishing houses to Losfeld's include Jörg Schröder's März-Verlag in Germany, American Grove Press and Great Britain's Calder and Boyars. A rival clandestine French editor was Pauvert. The difference between them was -- in the words of Sarane Alexandrian: "Jean-Jacques Pauvert was an editor of surrealism, Losfeld was a surrealist editor, this is what distinguishes them."[Jan 2007]
Published titles: Melody Nelson (lyrics) - Barbarella (comic book) - Emmanuelle (1959) - Midi Minuit Fantastique (film magazine)
Eric Losfeld (photocredit unknown)
Peter Blumenstock : France is renowned for its artistic and literary groups--the Surrealists, the Nouvelle Vague, the Nouveau Roman, and so forth. I get the impression that you formed something like that with people like Ado Kyrou and Eric Losfeld. Many of these people came to the library of Eric Losfeld.
Jean Rollin: "I was one of them. I was very young and came to listen to what all those people were saying during the meetings. I was sitting in one dark corner, quiet, and listening. I remember Ado Kyrou there, and Losfeld and Jacques Sternberg. One day, Losfeld looked at me and ordered me to come over to get into a conversation with them. That was the beginning. I was so proud to be there, to be able to speak with all these people, who were my heroes. Ado Kyrou was a very respected and important critic at that time. I read everything he wrote. We became close friends, and I came every Saturday morning to the library to meet with them. For me, they represented the spirit of everything. They were incredibly cultured, and they shared the same attitude towards life as I did. We were of the same kind. I agreed with everything they said, everything they wrote rang true for me. When I was among them, I felt at home and understood." --Jean Rollin via http://www.shockingimages.com/rollin/interview.htm [Feb 2005]
Le surréalisme au cinéma (1952|1963) - Ado Kyrou
Endetté comme une mule: Ou, La Passion d'éditer (1979) - Eric Losfeld
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]Autobiography of Losfeld.
Biography
Eric Losfeld (1923? - 1979) was a French publisher who had a reputation for publishing controversial material with his publishing imprint Éditions Le Terrain Vague.
He was the publisher of Emmanuelle (1967), two film magazines (Midi Minuit Fantastique and Positif) and the works of Ado Kyrou.
He published the Barbarella science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Losfeld [Aug 2005]
Éditions Le Terrain Vague
Founded in 1955, the Éditions Le Terrain Vague published widely on art and popular culture.
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