The Tribe

Between 1952 and 1954, Jean-Michel Mension haunted Saint- Germain-des-Pres as a member of the legendary Lettrist International, direct progenitor of the Situationist International. In a series of conversations, Mension recounts this very particular vie de boheme whiled away with Guy Debord and a rogues' gallery of hard drinkers and thinkers. The Tribe is a rare, vivid tour of a moment and milieu barely noticed at the time by the tourists who flocked to the Left Bank for a glimpse of Sartre & Co. The rich iconography includes many of Ed van der Elsken's celebrated photographs of "the tribe" and a trove of Letterist leaflets and posters.