177 - TZARA (Tristan).

TZARA (Tristan). The First Celestial Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine. [Zurich]: Dada Collection, 1916. — In-8 booklet, 224 x 148: (8 ff.), printed cover. Stapled. First edition of Tristan Tzara’s first book, the first work published by the Dada movement in Zurich, and the first title to bear the designation “Collection Dada,” printed by Julius Heuberger, the movement’s official typographer. “This poem, featuring multiple voices and characters distinguished by their distinct modes of expression, is a typical example of its author’s fundamental aims: the primacy of spontaneity and the freedom of words and associations of ideas, the rejection of all logic, the disarticulation of language through a disregard for syntax, borrowings from African dialects, invented language, and repetitions forming a rhythmic backdrop that carry with them alliterations and chemical formulas. “This surprising work brilliantly marks the beginnings of Dada; no other text can be compared to it in terms of historical significance or compositional success” (Hugnet, *Dictionary of Dadaism: 1916–1922*, p. 280). This text was not staged until March 1920 during the Dada event at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre. It was performed by Philippe Soupault, Louis Aragon, Céline Arnaud, Paul Éluard, André Breton, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Théodore Fraenkel, and Tristan Tzara. The edition is illustrated with 7 original woodcuts, 6 of which are full-page and the last one is a tailpiece, engraved by the Romanian-born painter Marcel JANCO (1895–1984), a co-founder of Dadaism and one of the leading figures of Constructivism in Eastern Europe. A copy on laid paper, featuring the six full-page woodcuts printed in blue and black. The endplate is in black only. The edges of the cover are slightly sun-faded; otherwise, the copy is in very good condition.