Books

First edition thus, number 1,692 from a total edition of 5,120 copies. This copy has an appealing provenance, inscribed to "Sir Frederick & Lady Mason with affection, from the staff of the British Embassy, Santiago. 18th June, 1970", with his occasional pencil annotations translating the Spanish into English. Frederick Mason was British Ambassador to Chile between 1966 and 1970. Mario Toral (1934) is a Chilean painter and photographer, winner of a medal of honour from the Pablo Neruda Foundation in 2007 for his contributions to Chilean art and culture. Neruda, one of his greatest admirers, praised his art with verses: "Toral transforms his transformation, forms his form, expands his latitude. Toral explores the unknown universe that awaits us from the high towers" (Inti). Upon first publication in 1924, the explicitly erotic contents of Veinte Poemas shocked the sensibility of numerous readers and critics, who condemned the book as offensive and obscure. Neruda, who was nineteen years old at the time, defended his work in an open letter published in the journal La Nacion, referring to the struggle of completing his project: "Ten years of solitary labour, exactly half my life, have made diverse rhythms and contrary currents succeed one another in my expression. Disperse as thought in its elusive variation, I have made these poems and I have suffered much in making them" (quoted in de Costa, p. 21). Despite the initial reaction, Veinte poemas enjoyed a long-lasting success, and it remains Neruda's best known work. R. de Costa, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 1982. Inti, Revista de literatura hisp�nica no. 69-70, 2009 Square folio. Original grey cloth, "20" stamped in blind to front cover. With the illustrated dust jacket. With full-page reproductions of watercolours throughout. A couple of spots of light foxing to cloth, contents clean. A near-fine copy in the very good jacket, extremities a little rubbed and creased consequently with a few short tears, a couple of small scuffed holes to rear panel, else bright.