Immeasurable Distances: The Collected Essays by Harry Matthews 

A beautifully printed book. Harry Mathews was born in New York and moved to Europe in 1952. He has lived in Spain, Germany, Italy, and (mainly) France. In 1956, Matthews first published some of his poetry. He was then associated with the "New York School of Poets;" along with John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler, he founded the review Locus Solus in 1961. Through his friendship with Georges Perec, he became a member of the Oulipo in 1972. The Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potientielle--"Workshop for Potential Literature") is a group of writers, logicians and mathematicians whose primary objective is the systematic and formal innovation of constraints in the production and adaptation of literature. They believe all literature from sonnets to detective novels is governed by constraints. By formulating new contraints, the Oulipo attempts to create new forms of literature.

Published by The Lapis Press, Venice, California, 1991, 325 pages, 10 1/4 in. 7 1/4 in., hardcover

ISBN: 0932499430