Nicolas Calas' "Confound the Wise" (1942)

New York City: Arrow Editions (book, essays), 1942.
8.75" x 6" x 1.25", 275 pages, hardcover in bare boards with tan quarter buckram and delicate dust-jacket.

Confound the Wise, a book of essays on "Poetry, Portuguese Baroque, Portrait Painting, and Modern Architecture" by Swiss-board Greek Surrealist Nicolas Calas, as published in hardcover by Arrow Editions (New York City) in 1942.

Brion Gysin is credited with the cover art for this book, which is borrowed from a 1941 décalomanie painting. On the front cover, the original image [which was in color] has been flipped horizontally, and on the rear cover, the image is flipped vertically and value-inverted. The text is not Gysin's but rather applied by the book's designer.

Copies of this book in the original dust-jacket are rather scarce.

Contents: 

• Brion Gysin: cover art
• Nicolas Calas: Confound the Wise:
• "Introduction: The Clock"
• "Part One: Time":
• "I. The Light of Words"
• "1. Lucidity"
• "2. The Command"
• "3. The Categories of Images"
• "4. The Image in Modern Poetry"
• "5. Psychoanalysis and Poetry"
• "6. Poetry and Political Manifestoes"
• "7. Poetry and Love-Letters"
• "8. The Message"
• "II. The Dialectics of Wine Glass and Gold":
• "1. The Myth"
• "2. Theory of Memory"
• "3. France and Memory"
• "4. History and Memory"
• "5. The Wall of China Complex"
• "6. 'Alexandrian' Poetry"
• "Part Two: Space":
• "III. Entangled Miracles":
• "1. Poetry and Discovery"
• "2. The Portuguese Miracle"
• "3. Baroque and Classicism"
• "4. Baroque Morphology"
• "5. Surrealist Criticism"
• "6. Surrealism and the Baroque"
• "IV: The Rose of the Winds":
• "1. Portuguese History"
• "2. The Portuguese Complex"
• "3. Prince Henry"
• "4. The Perfect Prince"
• "5. From Columbus to Spinoza"
• "6. The Manuelino"
• "7. From Alcobaça to El Greco"
• "8. From Thomar to Voltaire"
• "9. Portuguese Painting"
• "V: Velvet Flames":
• "1. Love"
• "2. The Palace of Mafra"
• "3. The João Quinto Style"
• "4. Portuguese Sculpture"
• "5. The Pombal Style"
• "6. The Manor of Pena"
• "7. Baroque Gardens
• "8. Portugal Today"
• "9. Iphegenia"
• "Part Three: The Present":
• "VI. The Salutary Image":
• "1. The Holy trinity"
• "2. The Double"
• "3. The Double in History"
• "4. Psychoanalysis and the Double"
• "5. Behavior and the Double"
• "6. Sociological Analysis and the Double"
• "7. The Body Image"
• "8. Philosophy of the Body Image"
• "9. Acting"
• "10. Resemblance"
• "11. Meditation"
• "VII: Blue Moves in the Dark":
• "1. Rigid Painting"
• "2. Automatism"
• "3. Automatism and Stains"
• "4. Metamorphosis"
• "Envoi: New York":
• "The Evil Eye"
• "Bibliographical Notes"