Few writers have had a greater impact on the methods of art-making in the twentieth century than Raymond Roussel (1877-1933). Marcel Duchamp acknowledged Roussel as the foremost influence on his "Large Glass"; Andre Breton described him as the "greatest magnetizer of modern times"; and at least two generations of conceptual artists, from Allen Ruppersberg and Guy de Cointet to Rodney Graham and Paul Etienne Lincoln have borrowed or adapted Roussel's "procede" for writing, which involved selecting two similar-sounding words, elaborating them into two similar-sounding sentences and then "writing a tale which can start with the first and finish by the second." Reproducing a wealth of archival materials, artworks and writings, this volume--a kind of Roussel encyclopedia--assesses the writer's legacy in art for the first time. Alongside works by the above, it includes art by Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, Joseph Cornell, Ree Morton and others; and writings on Roussel by Jean Cocteau, Paul...