“Wonderful . . .  and full of life. This is a book for discovery, for pleasure and delight.” – George Szirtes, author of The Photographer at SixteenA revelatory volume of 2 of the 20th century’s great poetic innovators, Guillaume Apollinaire and Velimir Khlebnikov, in vibrant new translations by Robert ChandlerOffering a fresh angle on two of the most innovative poets of the 20th century, and grouping poems by theme, celebrated translator and poet Robert Chandler finds surprising connections between Apollinaire and Khlebnikov, from their interest in animal poems and bestiaries to their distinctive approaches to war poetry.Although Apollinaire and Khlebnikov never met, their restless innovations in poetic form shared much in common. Both pushed poetry to its limit, and their experiments proved fertile for generations of poets to come. Khlebnikov became associated with Futurism, though his inventiveness with language moved him...

In graphic scenes celebrating the discovery of young love, Memoirs of a Rakehell tells the true story of the immortal French poet, Guillaume Apollinaire's sexual adventures among the women of Paris in the days before the First World War. As author and scholar Michael Perkins writes of this world recognized masterpiece of erotica, in The Secret Record: The Story of Modern Erotic Literature: "As the boy learns about sex from spying on his sister and timidly attempting to seduce the family maid, an atmosphere of highly charged adolescent sexuality is slowly developed. Although obscenities are used freely, there is something sweetly innocent about the novelist's fanciful imagery in describing sexual acts. Memoirs of a Young Rakehell … attempts through a softer, more sensuous approach to seduce the reader into not only accepting the author's depiction of sexuality as an accurate reflection of the reader's own sexuality, but to entertain and stimulate as well." Here is an unforgettable work, as frank and excitingly written as any work of fiction - and every searing page is true. A must-read classic of erotic literature.