Paris: Au Sans Pareil, 1920

4to.; 8pp.; 10 halftone photographs; self-wraps, stapled as issued, with front cover design by Picabia; central fold; soiled; ink stains at upper right and lower right.

Dada was an avant-garde magazine published in 8 numbers between July 1917 and September 1921, first in Zürich (1–4/5) and later in Paris (6–8). The magazine was edited by Tristan Tzara; number 3 (1918) features his Dada manifesto in which he declared that “dada means nothing.” The penultimate issue of Dada, brought out by Tzara in March 1920, at a moment of inspired Dada activity in Paris, just before the Manifestation Dada at the Maison de l’Oeuvre (March 27), the first appearance of Cannibale (April), and the Festival Dada at the Salle Gaveau (May). With contributions by Tzara, Picabia (Manifeste Cannibale Dada), Breton, Éluard, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Soupault, Cocteau, Dermée, Aragon, Arnauld, Evola and others. Dadaphone's visual interest is mostly in its insistent typographic density, rather than its illustration—though it does include a beautiful abstract Schadograph, purporting to show Arp and Serner in the Royal Crocodarium in London, as well as the spiralingly zany Picabia drawing on the front cover.

This was Ezra Pound’s copy.