In POLAR
NOIR, I recently published an article and comments about a French publishing
house, Les Editions du Scorpion, that was founded in 1946 and had its first
immediate success with a noir novel written by Boris Vian under his Vernon
Sullivan pseudo, pretending it was a translation of an American novel: “J’irai
cracher sur vos tombes” (I shall Spit on Your Graves). They published 4 Vernon
Sullivan’s novels in total (more or less in the same vein) + an oddity: “I
shall spit on your graves”, the English version of the French text (which was supposed
to be a translation of the original American novel !), two “real Vian,
originals: “L’Automne à Pékin”-Autumn in Peking-
and “Les Fourmis” a short stories collection).
But they
published also Raymond Queneau under a pseudonym, some of the first French crime
noir novels, as well as translations of Cain, Chase, O’ Farrell and others.
It was a
“popular” kind of production, full of borderline sleazy novels but also French
elitist novels, scandal orientated fictions about homosexuality and
prostitution. And more.
All of the
Avians interested by French noir novels and French lit, should have a look at
the dedicated page in POLAR NOIR (it’s in French, but some of the list members
can read French, as we know of) the list of publications with comments on the
most intriguing or famous ones.
The article
and comments are at:
http://www.geocities.com/polarnoir/edscorpion.html
E.Borgers
POLAR NOIR
http://www.geocities.com/polarnoir
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