Obelisk: A History of Jack Kahane and the Obelisk Press (review)

'All my books from the Obelisk Press this morning seized by the police, with warning from Public Prosecutor that I am liable to be prosecuted if importing such things again': so George Orwell on 12 August 1939 — ironically, one of his 'Events Leading up to the War'. Jack Kahane was born in Manchester in 1887; his father committed suicide when his business failed in 1893. By dint of native talent and hard work Jack won a decent education, made a good living as a fabric salesman, and played an energetic role in the artistic life of Manchester, being very active in the worlds of the Hallé and the Gaiety Theatre. Indeed, his campaign to have French music played by the Hallé may have led to Hans Richter being forced out. He founded the Swan Club, the members of which included Harold Brighouse, Stanley Houghton, Esmé Percy, and Basil Dean — a distinguished group indeed.

On the declaration of war in August 1914 Kahane enlisted immediately. Though he survived, his health was shattered. The Manchester milieu had dispersed and he lived out the rest of his life in France. His dearest wish was to be a writer. Whilst in Manchester he had two one-act plays published (C-1). One, The Master, was performed at the Gaiety in 1913 with Esmé Percy but ran for only one night. It may have been played in Dublin, and a performance of the other play, Black Magic, is mentioned by James Agate. Kahane turned to novel writing with very limited success. Laugh and Grow Rich (C-2), under his own name, achieved three modest English and two American editions and impressions (the second 'd' on p. 286 should presumably be an 'e'). The title is Grant Richards's, who would accept none of Kahane's, though one at least had a delightful touch of self-mockery: Tripes à la mode de Kahane (p. 285). He did his best to push his own books under pen names — Cecil Barr (a name concocted from the bar he favoured in the Cecil Hotel in Paris, p. 58) and Henry Bridges (probably from the Pont Henri IV near where he had an office, p. 110). Unfortunately, as Neil Pearson puts it, it took Kahane 'five years to admit to himself that the only thing he could write that anyone wanted to read was inconsequential froth, and it was a truth which hurt him for the rest of his life' (p. 58). Tripes à la mode de Kahane indeed.

Kahane, with generous help from his father-in-law, at least until the Wall Street Crash, turned to publishing. His practice was to finance the publication of worth-while books (such as Joyce's Pomes Penyeach and Richard Aldington's unexpurgated Death of a Hero) from the proceeds of those that would attract the Britisher abroad, offering the risqué and the 'entirely unexpurgated', such as Kahane's Boulevard Library publication, Raymonde Machard's Possession, the wrap-around to which claimed it had 'that Continental flavour you want when you come to France' (A-13). The translation into English was probably by Kahane. The first book to be issued under the imprint of the Obelisk Press was Gold and Silver (1929) by 'Henry Bridges', probably Kahane (A-11). The obelisk logo, based on the monument in the Place de la Concorde, was designed by Kahane's wife, Marcelle. Its phallic characteristics are enhanced in certain designs, such as the cover of Lawrence Durrell's The Black Book (1938). Following his account of Kahane's life (pp. 1–75), Pearson's bibliography is, in the main, devoted to sixty-eight works published by Kahane and the Obelisk Press (pp. 79–268). This is followed by Obelisk ephemera (pp. 271–77), Kahane's writings not published by Obelisk (pp. 281–306), and his translations (pp. 309–12). There are then fifty-three author biographies (pp. 313–488...