Diálogo. Colecção Autores Ultramarinos, Série Literatura, 12.

Lisbon, Edição da Casa dos Estudantes do Império [colophon: Editorial Minerva], (1963).. 8°, original illustrated wrappers (minor wear, crease on front wrapper). Cover design by Henrique Abranches. Internally fine; overall in very good condition. Small paper tag on first leaf, printed with word "Referencia," stamped with number 98058, with "15.00" in pencil below. 55, (1) pp. *** FIRST EDITION of this series of short dialogues. Another edition appeared in 1987, and a third in 2015.Henrique Abranches (Lisbon, 1932-2004) was an ethnographer, poet, novelist, sculptor, and essayist. In 1947 he moved to Angola, and by the 1950s was publishing extensively on ethnology and folkore in Cultura. In 1961 he was captured by the PIDE (Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado, the Portuguese security police). Detained in Lisbon, his Diálogo was published by the Casa dos Estudantes do Império, as was his Manual de etnografia. He also contributed to their periodicals Cultura and Mensagem. In 1962 he aligned himself with the MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola), establishing with Pepetela the Centro de Estudos Angolanos in Argel, where he published a Historia da Angola to be read by the guerrilla fighters. By 1973 he had returned to Angola, taking an active role in MPLA actions. While Angola was still a colony, he published under the pseudonyms Mwene Kalungo and Mwene Kalungo Lungo.After independence was declared, Abranches became the national director of museums and monuments, and later founded the Laboratório Nacional de Antropologia. A Konkhava de Féti, published eighteen years after it was written, earned him the Prémio Nacional de Literatura awarded by the União dos Escritores Angolanos in 1984; he earned another in 1988 for O Clã de Novembrino.The Casa dos Estudantes do Império (C.E.I.) played an important role "na formação de uma consciência e de uma literatura nacionais" (Biblos). Created under the Salazar regime in an attempt to support and control foreign students, the C.E.I. became a hotbed of writers who argued and fought for the independence of Portuguese colonies in Africa. It was established in 1944 from the merger of separate homes for students from Angola, Moçambique, and Cabo Verde. From 1948 to 1964 the C.E.I. issued the monthly magazine Mensagem, in whose pages many writers first appeared who later became important figures in their respective national literatures. The Colecção de Autores Ultramarinos, launched in 1958, published many works by young Africans. Among the most prominent members of the C.E.I. were Amílcar Cabral (Guiné-Bissau and Cabo Verde), Lúcio Lara and Agostinho Neto (Angola), and Marcelino dos Santos (Moçambique).*** Soares, Notícia da literatura angolana pp. 193, 195, 209, 314. On the author, see Lourenço do Rosário in Biblos, I, 14-15. Dicionário cronológico de autores portugueses VI, 101-3. On the C.E.I., see Maria Aparecida Ribeiro in Biblos I, 1029-30. Porbase locates two copies, both at Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. Jisc locates a single copy, at King's College London, dated [196-?].