Enclosed[1] I send you the complete list of my works that have been published by Editions Lebovici-Champ Libre, and thus the only other existing contracts.
I add a letter from my English publisher,[2] showing the prejudice that has already been caused by the strange adversaries of the rue Saint-Suplice[3] (in response I have advised him to ask them for the rights to Panegyric, since they still hold them); and also two announcements that I have published in the literary supplement of the Times and L'Evenement du jeudi,[4] so as to publicly notify these dazed people of what they have irremediably lost for the future.
I have received Nicolas Lebovici's mendacious letter of 18 February, which seems to me to be completely off the subject. The only assuredly true point in it is that he finds himself being the only real owner and manager (text from 2 May 1984 enclosed).[5]
The first three or four pages of the Comments [on the Society of the Spectacle] that I sent you on Friday can, I believe, give you an exact idea of what could perhaps be displeasing in my writings.
My principal intention, without mentioning other compensations, would be to gain possession of the rights to The Society of the Spectacle and the titles that are related to it (the Preface of 1979 and the Comments of 1988); and also Panegyric, if possible. These are exactly the titles in which the mistakes that led me to the break were committed. But these are also the titles that have most often been reprinted and translated. Thus, one can concede to them, if they finally realize that it is necessary for them to negotiate, the rights to the first volume of Panegyric and also all of its sequels, on the condition that they abandon the titles concerning the society of the spectacle.
I beg you to believe, dear Sir, in the assurances of my quite cordial sentiments.
Guy Debord[1] Translator's note: not included in the Fayard edition.
[2] Translator's note: not included in the Fayard edition.
[3] Translator's note: Nicolas Lebovici and Lorenzo Valentine, the inheritors of Editions Gerard Lebovici.
[4] Translator's note: Greil Marcus writes about this odd notice in his essay "You Could Catch It," published in The Dustbin of History (1997).
[5] A certificate of ownership, established by Mr. [Gerard] Voitey on 2 May 1984, was deposited by Michel Bounan at the Institute for Social History in Amsterdam, along with the totality of the letters and other documents that were communicated.
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 7: Janvier 1988-Novembre 1994 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2008. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! January 2009. Footnotes by the publisher, except where noted.)