Thomas Gage's Travels in the New World

Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958. Hardcover. Edited by J. Eric S. Thompson. Small 4to. Green cloth with ivory lettering. li, 379pp. Illustrations. Very good. Faint binding edgewear. First of this edition, a reprint of the 1958 edition of the 1648 classic on travel in the West Indies, Mexico and Central America. This interesting association copy bears on the front flyleaf a large purple inkstamped presentation stamp: "Obsequiado por el Presidente / YDIGORAS FUENTES / a '[Mr. --] / [Adlai E. Stevenson] / Guatemala, [16] de [Feb.] 196[0]." (Bracketed portions accomplished in black ink.) Above this inkstamp appears Stevenson's full rubberstamped signature. Adlai E. Stevenson II (1900-65), Illinois governor and two-time presidential candidate, would become U.S. ambassador to the U.N. the following year, and apparently Fuentes sent him this and other books about his country well in advance of that for some reason. Interestingly, it was in Guatemala that the American-led troops involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion of April, 1961, were trained and it was from there and Nicaragua that they launched their attack. In June 1961 Stevenson (who'd been kept in the dark about the CIA's Bay of Pigs involve-ment) toured 10 South American capital cities in 18 days to sound government leaders out about JFK's "Alliance for Progress" cooperative program and to sound the alarm about the spread of communism in the western hemisphere. A great association copy of a title with much Guatemala content from the Guatemalan president (1895-1982) remembered for his close ties to the U.S.