How I Wrote Certain of My Books
Roussel, Raymond / Ashbery, John / Winkfield, Trevor
Raymond Roussel (1877-1933), next-door neighbor of Marcel Proust, can be described without exaggeration as the most eccentric writer of the 20th century. His unearthly style based on elaborate linguistic riddles and puns fascinated the Surrealists and famously influenced the composition of Marcel Duchamp's "Large Glass, " but also affected writers as diverse as Gide, Robbe-Grillet and Foucault (author of a book-length study of Roussel). The ti...