**An essential, vibrant collection of masterful translations by one of the finest poets at work today** ** Collected French Translations: Prose, the second volume in a landmark two-volume selection of John Ashbery’s translations, focuses on prose writing. Ashbery’s own prose writings and engagement with prose writers—through translations, essays, and criticism—have had a profound impact on the cultural landscape of the past half century. This book presents his versions of, among others, the classic French fairy tale The White Cat by Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, as well as works by such innovative masters as Raymond Roussel and Giorgio de Chirico. Here are all of Roussel’s *Documents to Serve as an Outline* and extracts from his *Impressions of Africa* ; selections from Georges Bataille’s darkly erotic first novella, *L’abbé C* ; Antonin Artaud’s correspondence with the writer Jacques Rivière; Salvador Dalí on Willem de Kooning’s art; Jacques Dupin on Giacometti; and key theoretical and conceptual texts by Odilon Redon, Jean Hélion, Iannis Xenakis, and Marcelin Pleynet. Several of these twenty-nine prose pieces, by seventeen fiction writers, playwrights, artists, musicians, and critics, are previously unpublished or have been long unavailable. Many are modern classics, such as Pierre Reverdy’s *Haunted House*. This book provides fresh insight into the range of French cultural influence on Ashbery’s life and work in literature and the arts.