Documents, photographs, and artwork from the archive of Stefan and Franciszka Themerson and material from their avant-garde publishing house, Gaberbocchus Press

The MIT Press is proud to publish The Themerson Catalogue, a three-volume set featuring the archive of Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, including material from their small avant-garde press Gaberbocchus. This beautiful, monumental collection evokes fifty years of independent creative enterprise.

This monumental three-volume publication documents the life and work of the Themersons: Stefan Themerson (1910-1988) filmmaker, writer, and publisher, and his wife, Franciszka Themerson (1907 – 1988) painter, illustrator, theatre designer, and publisher. Both were active members of the Polish avant-garde, but in 1938 they moved to Paris, the centre of the avant-garde at the time. During World War II they found their way to London, where they continued their work and where they stayed.

In 1948, they founded the Gaberbocchus Press (Gaberbocchus is a Latinization of ‘Jabberwocky’) and published the first English editions of Alfred Jarry, Raymond Queneau, the Pataphysicians, and others, alongside work by young British writers, who fell outside the commercial mainstream.

Volume I is a collection of the Themersons’ correspondence ranging from that with the philosopher, Bertrand Russell to that with the Themersons’ house cleaner.

Volume II documents the Themersons’ lives  –  successes and frustration, work and travel, filmmaking, and exhibitions.

Volume III presents the history of Gaberbocchus Press from 1948 to 1979, including all publications, details of work on the books, reviews, and the day-to-day life of the Press. It also chronicles the Common Room (1957 – 1959) located in the basement of Gaberbocchus Press, the first London club of which the aim was to bring the arts and the sciences together.

In words and images, poetry and doodles, satire and seriousness, these three volumes evoke fifty years of independent creative enterprise in a cold climate.