Carl Weissner – Death in Paris

Carl Weissner (1940-2012) was a German writer, translator, publisher, cut-up artist and musician. As a student of English Language and Literature he founded the literary magazine Klactoveedsedsteen, which introduced poets and writers such as Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Jeff Nuttall and William Burroughs to a German audience.

While still a student, Weissner went to the US in 1966 on a prestigious grant and recorded readings by Beat poets, which he released on vinyl a couple of years later in collaboration with Gerard Bellaart’s Cold Turkey Press. This Klacto/Cold Turkey LP (plus a number of additional recordings) was later re-issued on CD by Klacto/Cold Turkey/Sea Urchin. Carl Weissner translated works by William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Andy Warhol, J.G. Ballard, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa and others.

After Klactoveedsedsteen he founded the literary magazines UFO and Gasolin 23. Weissner collaborated with William Burroughs and was an inventive cut-up writer himself.

Death in Paris is one of Weissner’s last books, an experiment in ‘noir’ and a cut-up novel with roots in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. Each copy of Death in Paris bought through Sea Urchin comes with a small print of one of Weissner’s collages (courtesy of Jan Herman).