View. “Through the eyes of poets.” Charles Henri Ford, editor. Series I, No. 1 - Series VII, No. 3, October 1940 - Spring 1947 (all published), lacking 2 issues: Series I, Nos. 3 and 4/5.

New York, 1940-1947.. Prof. illus. Format varies: Series I in tabloid folio; Series II in sm. 4to.; Series III-VII in lrg. 4to. Series I in self-wraps.; Series II-VII in dec. wraps. Special issues are devoted to Surrealism, Ernst, Tchelitchew/Tanguy, “Vertigo,” and Marcel Duchamp (designed by the artist). “Among the many literary and art reviews which sprang up in the United States during the last war, it was certainly ‘View’ which--although never in any way an ‘official’ organ of the movement--provides the most striking evidence of the gradual penetration of American intellectual life by the ideas and themes of Surrealism” (Marcel Jean). “When Breton reached New York, he found ‘View,’ an avant-garde literary magazine edited by Charles-Henri Ford, most sympathetic to the surrealists. One of its regular contributors, Nicolas Calas, in particular, was to become a close friend of Breton, and edited the special surrealist number October/November 1941, which contained an interview with Breton by Charles-Henri Ford, and contributions by Masson, Georges Henein (from Cairo), Seligmann, Ernst (‘The Hundred Headless Woman’) and Benjamin Péret, and communications from surrealists in America and abroad. Breton was asked the memorable question, had he ever dreamed of Hitler, and then his impressions of New York, in which he reveals an interest in flora and especially in the butterflies of the surrounding countryside, rather than the skyscrapers of New York” (Ades). Issues of the Series I are rare, and sets so nearly complete as this--lacking only two issues from the first series--are very difficult to obtain.