The passion to publish in all freedom: Éric Losfeld (1921-1979) shares with Jean-Jacques Pauvert the desire to ‘bring erotic literature out of its editorial ghetto’ (Raymond Josué Seckel).
After learning the trade with François Di Dio, Edmond Charlot and Jean d’Halluin, he founded Editions Arcanes (1952-1955) then Le Terrain vague (in 1955) where he welcomed the authors of Surrealist works, fantasy, humour, essays and periodicals about the cinema (including Positif) and erotica.
The latter category, sometimes authored by Losfeld himself, earned him many legal wrangles.
From1964 to 1973, according to the sociologist Martine Poulain, at least 30 titles were banned from sale to minors, and from being displayed or advertised.
The pressure was all the stronger because Éric Losfeld and his wife Pierrette Slowetchik, manager of the house, published the highly successful Emmanuelle and L’Anti-vierge by Emmanuelle Arsan.
Condemnations of all sorts, including the privation of his civil rights, constantly obliged Le Terrain vague to slow down its activities.