Site Update, New Translation: The Adventures of An Anarchist
One of the pleasures of archival work is that the project is never quite finished.
Just when a trail appears exhausted, another fragment surfaces: a forgotten newspaper clipping, a passing mention, a photograph, a review, an advertisement, an anecdote preserved by accident for more than a century. Over the couple of years, while working on the larger recovery and translation projects devoted to Zo d'Axa and his circle, these discoveries have begun accumulating faster than they can comfortably fit into newsletters, footnotes, or future books.
So Bacchus Editions created a new Archive Discoveries section on the Zo d'Axa project page.
The idea is simple. Whenever an interesting archival find appears, whether a newspaper article, caricature, interview, photograph, review, or obscure reference, we will share it there along with any necessary context and, when needed, a new translation.
To open it up, Fiona (our French translator) posted a gem found in his granddaughter's archives and it is now online.
Le Bulletin de Vouziers, 1893)
This was published shortly after Zo d'Axa's arrest at Jaffa and his forced return to France. It reads like a comic adventure story. We find Zo wandering the streets of Jaffa in a green all velvet suit, pursued by diplomats, janissaries, curious crowds, and a growing reputation that seems to arrive wherever he does. It captures something essential about the way Zo d'Axa was already being perceived during his own lifetime.
We love that this new sections preserves details that rarely, if ever, make their way into biographies.
This is the first of what will be many, many shares.
Read it on the Archives Discovery Blog, which you can always reach via our Zo d'Axa translation portal.
Enjoy!