SOURCE: Afterword, to The Complete Wild Body, Black Sparrow Press, 1982, pp. 403-14.

In the following afterword to a collection of Lewis's stories, Lafourcade, following Lewis's own example, catalogues the six basic "Attributes " of the Wild Body stories, which are "a real presence," "fascination," "comedy, " "tragedy, " "The grotesque, " and "The absurd. "

To get some idea of the present status and sweeping magnitude of this remarkable collection of stories—Wyndham Lewis's great initial outburst and constant source of reference for what was to prove most actively vital in his vision—imagine a population of Easter Island monoliths lying face down, half buried in the dust. This spectral host must sooner or later be recovered from oblivion as one of the great exhumations of Modernism, and the object of this book is to promote a long overdue recognition by presenting the procession of these stories complete for the first time.

Pondered...