1968 signs first English translation of Becker-Ho's 'immensely important' work

Radical left publishing house 1968 Press has signed the first English translation of Alice Becker-Ho’s “immensely important” The First Ghetto.

Co-founder Alfie Bown acquired world rights for the book from Riveneuve. A history of the Venetian ghetto and its significance, the new translation by John McHale is due for paperback and e-book release in March 2022.

Becker-Ho is a poet, historian, and theorist who formed a key part of the Situationist movement from the early 1960s onward. Author of many books of poetry, as well as A Game of War, written with her husband Guy Debord, she has been an influence on European political thought and activism. She now lives between Paris and Venice.

Bown commented: “We’re absolutely delighted to have secured a book from someone as immensely important as Alice Becker-Ho. We hope the press can continue in this vein: publishing what is important, rather than just what the market demands.”

McHale added: “Where might the Venetophile and linguist at last find a comprehensive solution to the centuries-long conundrum of the word ‘ghetto’? A true aficionado of the city out to challenge certain shibboleths, Alice Becker-Ho throws a wholly unexpected and original light on Venice and its ghetto.”

Launched in summer 2021, 1968 Press was founded by psychoanalyst, bookseller and author Daniel Bristow, academic and journalist Alfie Bown, writer and activist Jaice Sara Titus and tech media strategist Isabelle Dann. The publisher’s first book, Psychoanalysis and Revolution by Ian Parker and David Pavón-Cuéllar, was published in October this year.