This collection is based on the pioneering anthology of Peretas writings that first appeared in August 1970 in the SDS journal Radical America, introduced by Franklin Rosemont. This new, expanded and illustrated edition includes a selection of Peretas incomparable poetry and stories, a wide range of crtiical essays of the practice of poetry, the struggle against capitalism, slave revolts in Brazil, Pre-Columbian art, and appreciations of the great surrealist artists Wifredo Lam, Jundirch Styrsky, and Toyen. An afterword by Don LaCoss discusses the ecological dimension of Peretas work.
Peret’s writings testify with burning clarity to his relentless devotion to the cause of breaking the social, cultural, and psychological fetters which reduce the imagination to misery and degradation. An essential collection by an essential member of the first Surrealist group.