Memorias De La Sierra Maestra (Signed) by Pardo Llada, Jose - 1960

32mo, green and red pictorial wraps with a silhouette of a palm tree. 172 pp. Signed by the author on the title page: "Saludos de José Pardo Llada". Patronato del Libro Popular. Primera Serie, Volumen I. An eyewitness account of the guerrilla war waged in the Sierra Maestra with the revolutionary forces before the taking of Havana. Pardo Llada was a radio announcer -- at one time the most popular announcer in Cuba -- in the 1940s who was critical of Grau's government. In 1950, he was elected to the House of Representatives and over the next several years formed a deep personal friendship with Fidel Castro, who would visit his home nearly daily (and once drove Pardo Llada's wife to the hospital to deliver a child). When Batista took power in 1952, Pardo Llada was suspended from broadcasting 42 times and was imprisoned on a number of occasions. In 1958, he joined the revolutionary forces in Sierra Maestra and fought alongside Castro, Che Guevara, Camillo Cienfuegos and others. However Pardo Llada quickly went from ardent supporter (he waived his copyright and donated all proceeds from the publication of this book to the agrarian reform efforts) to a disillusioned exile: in 1961 he grew disappointed with the communist leanings of the government and defected to Columbia while Castro denounced him as a traitor, declaring in a speech that he was the sort of man who couldn't see past the end of his nose and would be mistaken his entire life until he eventually committed suicide via sleeping pills. Pardo Llada died in 2009 at the age of 86 (of natural causes). Front wrap nearly completely detached, previous owner's signatures on front wrap and ffep, wraps heavily soiled and foxed, also heavy foxing to endpapers and final pages of text. Scarce.