HERRIGEL, E. (Bungaku Hakushi). Le Zen dans L’Art Chevaleresque du Tir a L’Arc.

(Paris): Dervy-Livres, 1988.  First edition thus.  Softcover.  16.5cm by 12.8cm  105pages.  Preface by D.T. Suzuki.  Sweet edition of the cult classic Zen and the Art of Archery issued as part of the publisher’s ‘Mystiques et Religions’ collection. Eugen Herrigelwas a German philosopher who taught in Japan between 1924 and 1929. During this period, he studied Kyūdō — traditional Japanese archery — under the master Awa Kenzō as a means of understanding Zen Buddhism experientially rather than intellectually. Upon returning to Europe, Herrigel distilled his experience into a short philosophical text exploring how mastery of a craft (in this case archery) can become a vehicle toward enlightenment, self-transcendence, and the dissolution of the ego.  The book is part memoir, part spiritual treatise. Herrigel recounts his years of rigorous practice, his early frustrations, and his gradual understanding that the essence of Zen cannot be grasped by effort or intention.  D. T. Suzuki’s foreword situates Herrigel’s experience within the broader Zen tradition, introducing many Western readers to Zen philosophy for the first time.  The work became one of the earliest and most influential works to bridge Eastern philosophy and Western thought.  It inspired a wave of interest in Zen among artists, writers, and thinkers — influencing figures from Alan Watts and Thomas Merton to John Cage and the Beat poets. It also gave rise to an enduring linguistic formula — “Zen and the art of …” — later echoed in titles like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and beyond.  A very good plus copy in printed wrappers with integral flaps.