Yesterday I mailed the definitive manuscript of All About the Person[1] as a registered package to the rue de Bearn.[2] I am happy with the montage, a word that I use because -- apart from the question of the "punch" that was of a quite cinematographic nature -- I find that everything corresponds exactly to the instructions and definitions indicated by Gerard [Lebovici] in other circumstances. I strongly believe that no one has ever left instructions for such a monument, and now it is built. I believe that it will be necessary to do our best (including a coldly calculated publicity campaign) so that the book does not go unnoticed. There will be good reasons, much stronger than is customary, for people to not want to notice it. Because it seems to me that those who do notice it will find it frightening.
Useless to tell you that it will be necessary to push the printing of this book with the maximum of possible celerity and, even more so, the maximum of care (look out for delays concerning the photo agency). It is necessary to unify the book's typography: quite large body type, smaller than indicated in the note left by Gerard, but clearly larger than that of the "Publisher's Note." With the exception of the quotation marks, it will not be necessary to bear in mind the "journalistic typography," that is to say, the diverse changes in characters and types, their pseudo-emphases. But it will be necessary to be very rigorous in the proofreading: no mistake must alter what the journalists wrote.
It seems to me that Ouldamer[3] should be published. He has merits that are equal to those of Roumieux[4] in another dimension of the world of madness. There is also humor, and even his title seems good to me. It will not to necessary to alter his style, which sometimes unwisely indulges in a noble tone. But it will be necessary to correct his typographical abuse of breaks and exclamation marks (inversely, he sometimes forgets the quotation marks in his many dialogues). I have already corrected this mistake in half of the manuscript and I believe that you can make him re-read it to clean it up a little more where this is concerned. I will send you the entire thing at the beginning of next week.
I ask you to send me:[5]
6 copies of Rubbish and Debris
3 copies of the [Editions Champ Libre] Catalogue for 1984
4 copies of the Rules for the Game of War (= 2 copies in English)
I embrace you and your sons.
See you soon,[1] Based upon a manuscript note by Gerard Lebovici for a projected book about himself, All About the Person gathered together the judgments concerning him expressed in letter and articles in the press published before and after his assassination.
[2] The last address of Editions Champ Libre.
[3] Mezioud Ouldamer, who took refuge in France after his release from prison in Algeria. His book, Offense to the President, a narrative of arbitrary imprisonment under the tyranny of Algerian power, would be published in 1985.
[4] I Work in an Insane Asylum, by Andre Roumieux (Editions Champ Libre, 1974).
[5] Translator's note: all these books were published by Editions Champ Libre.
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 5: Janvier 1979-Decembre 1987 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2006. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! May 2007. Footnotes by Alice Debord, except where noted.)