CANTO GENERAL by NERUDA, Pablo - 1950

First Edition thus, following the special. signed and limited edition, in larger format, issued by Talleres Gráficos de la Nación in Mexico in the same year. This is an exact facsimile of that book in a smaller format. Crown 8vo (7 x 5 ins) pp (575); original flexible orange cloth with publisher's logo embossed on front board and black title lettering to spine. Double spread illustrated endpapers at the front and back, that at the front reproducing a painting by Diego Rivera, at the back a painting by David A. Siqueiros. Photographic frontispiece of Neruda with his signature in facsimile. An excellent and sharp copy with just a small dirty mark to the front board and a light, horizontal crease across the spine near the head, contents free of any markings or old inscriptions.

"In the Canto," (explained Duran and Safir), "Neruda reached his peak as a public poet. He produced an ideological work that largely transcended contemporary events and became an epic of an entire continent and its people." According to Alazraki, "By bringing together his own odyssey and the drama of the continent, Neruda has simultaneously given to Canto general the quality of a lyric and an epic poem. The lives of conquistadors, martyrs, heroes, and just plain people recover a refreshing actuality because they become part of the poet's fate, and conversely, the life of the poet gains new depth because in his search one recognizes the continent's struggles. Canto general is, thus, the song of a continent as much as it is Neruda's own song."

'Esta edicion del Canto General de Pablo Neruda es reproduccion facsimilar de la especial y limitada que, al cuidado de Miguel Prieto, se imprimio en los Talleres Graficos de la Nacion. Se ha hecho una tirada de 5000 ejemplares en los talleres de "offset" Graficas Barcino, calle del Doctor Garciadiego, 209, por cuenta de MANIFACTURA DE LIBROS, S. DE R. L ' (from the colophon page)