"The only book that Rimbaud published of his own accord is A season in hell . In 1873, Rimbaud went around the printers of Charleville-Mézières to have his manuscript printed, but he didn't have a penny and his drawing was not very suitable for the time. Above all, for the uninitiated, his prose was rather illegible, so of course all the printers, including my great-great-grandfather, refused to print it. Commercially they were right, because the printer in Brussels who finally did the printing was never paid. Today, however, I am taking a small revenge by publishing his books."
Confidential / His great-great-grandfather printer refuses Arthur Rimbaud's manuscript
François Quinart is a typographer in Charleville-Mézières, a city where Arthur Rimbaud grew up. He is also the sixth generation of printers, the family printing house having been founded in 1830. His great-great-grandfather was a contemporary of the poet. So inevitably, there are anecdotes. Like the one where the great-great-grandfather refused to print Rimbaud's manuscript. François Quinart tells...
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