lettristn.adj.

1946 Time 2 Dec. 31/2 The rapidly growing hordes of Lettrists..prefer meaningless combinations of letters to dictionary words.

1947 N.Y. Times 26 Jan. (Book Review) 6/1 The Lettrists..aim at the renovation of poetry not only by the invention of new words but also of new letters. They have invented eighteen so far.

1962 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Apr. 246/4 Hausmann's lettrist interview with some hypothetical French lettristes.

1971 J. Willett in A. Bullock 20th Cent. 244/2 The Lettrists in Paris and the Brazilian concrete poets of the 1950s, who were alike in their concentration on the appearance and sound of words or individual letters.

2002 A. Merrifield Metromarxism v. 95 It was also as a Lettrist that he'd launch the first of a series of experimental films, Howlings in Favor of Sade.

1947 Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Mass.) 10 Dec. 4/3 According to the Lettrist head man, Romanian-born Isadore Isou, Lettrism is ‘poetry of poetry’.

1951 Amer. Mercury 72 659 In no time at all he [sc. Isidore Isou] was writing ‘lettrist’ poetry and he and his followers were assaulting the ears of everybody in the cafés of the Latin Quarter.

1980 J.-A. Bédé & W. B. Edgerton Columbia Dict. Mod. European Lit. (ed. 2) 33/1 At first a nature poet, Artmann soon turned to surrealist, dadaist, and lettrist traditions.

1991 Oxf. Art Jrnl. 14 118/2 Francis also..accepts the Lettrist belief in the legitimate use of plagiarism.