A singular piece of history
 
1944
Man Ray
Los Angeles, c. 1945
 
Manuscript of the iconic artist’s unfinished novel, signed by him at the end of the foreword. 
 
Original cloth composition book with spine label designed and executed by Man Ray. Covers a bit rubbed, top-edge a little dusty, else Fine. Housed in a custom clamshell case.
 
Leaves hand-numbered 8-13(foreword) and then 1-74(the story) on rectos. The first 7 leaves were mysteriously torn out after Man Ray’s death, and the story ends without a conclusion. The last 150 leaves are blank.  Rear flyleaf with a pencil drawing of an automobile carrying a cannon on its roof, and a list of 7 dystopian books on its verso.
 
The Second World War forced Man Ray’s move from Paris to the United States in 1940, where he chose Los Angeles to reside and remain in for 11 years. The cataclysmic conflict of war spurred him to endeavor upon a new creative outlet, writing. 
 
Man Ray writes in the foreword:
 
“I do not propose to conceal my thoughts with words, any more than I conceal thoughts in a drawing,— it will simply require an added effort or good will to read my thoughts, as much as it requires a certain clairvoyance to read between the lines of a drawing. That is what I mean by the secrecy of thought and drawing - nothing more. Now for the words…”
 
1944 tells the story of a disillusioned painter and wartime aviator called Robor as he explores a futuristic, brilliant metropolis. Surrealist visuals play prominently - the sky is described as artificial, hanging only twenty feet above the buildings, with rainbow-colored clouds, and food miraculously appears in the restaurant from waiters represented simply as gloved hands and disembodied voices.
 
“1944 can be said to provide evidence of a profound dissatisfaction with the effects of the war on his life, a deep-seated belief that the real meaning of his work was not understood by a general public(and probably would never be), a sense of alienation from his environment, however superficially attractive, and —above all— a desire to try his hand at being an author and not just someone who used words as a vehicle for ideas now and then.”(Mundy)
 
This manuscript was given to Janus, a Milan art critic who was Man Ray’s close friend and biographer, after the artist’s death in 1976. It was published in Italian in 1981, and finally in English in 2012. Also in 2012, this manuscript was the centerpiece of an exhibition about the novel(as pictured).
 
Of the myriad Man Ray works that have appeared on the market, this is truly an object of singularity, importance, serious provenance, and personal gravity to Man Ray himself.
 
Ref:
 
Man Ray: Writings on Art, Jennifer Mundy
Man Ray. 1944, Marconi Foundation