John Weightman, The New York Times Book Review
"Insofar as the modern theater has come to be, for some people, an alternative to religion, this is largely Artaud's doing. . . . Miss Sontag's introduction, as one might expect, is full of brilliant formulations."


John Simon, Saturday Review
"Artaud matters. Even more than to the theater and literature, he contributes to our understanding of madness, of what it is like to be both a paranoid schizophrenic and a genius observing and describing this dementia. . . . We cannot fail to recognize and learn from what these writings evoke."


Ronald Hayman, Encounter
"Artaud, who withdrew from the theatre but remained essentially an actor, came nearest to dramatising when he could project his imagination into another man's experience. . . . No one has written more lucidly or illuminatingly about the way van Gogh used madness, art and suicide to cope with an insufferable situation."


Book Description
A revolutionary figure in the literary avant-garde of his time, Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) is now seen to be central to the development of post- modernism. His writings comprise verse, prose poems, film scenarios, a historical novel, plays, essays on film, theater, art, and literature, and many letters. Susan Sontag's selection conveys the genius of this singular writer.


From the Back Cover
"Artaud remains one of the significant and influential theorists of modern theatre." (Gerald Rabkin, Rutgers University)

FROM THE PUBLISHER