Search Results: LATIN AMERICA from Downtown Brown Books, ABAA

Tokyo: Burajiru ni Okeru Nihonjin Hattenshi Kanko Iinkai [Publication Committee for the History of Japanese Development in Brazil], 1942. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A two-volume history of the Japanese in Brazil by a one-time California resident who helped open Brazil for the Japanese. The first Japanese immigrants settled in Brazil in 1908, not coincidentally the year after the Gentleman's Agreement restricted immigration to the United States. The new arrivals mostly pursued coffee cultivation around Sao Paulo. The first volume covers the diplomatic agreements and legal framework for Japanese immigrants in Brazil. The second volume describes the various colonies established, successful businesses, and offers biographies of some pioneers. These volumes were published to coincide with the 2600th anniversary of Japan, a milestone used to stoke the flames of nationalism in the early 1940s. These books were reprinted in the 1950s, when Japanese immigration to Brazil boomed again, and then… Read More

Rio de Janeiro: Pimenta de Mello & C., 1920. First Edition. Very good. An attractive promotional book illustrated with more than fifty views of Rio de Janeiro and the surrounding countryside printed in duotone; each image is faced with a decorative ad page for a Rio-based business. The album presents a very interesting snapshot of the commercial culture of Brazil's primary city early in the 20th century. [blank leaf], [2], 105, [1] pages. 11 by 7-1/4 inches (oblong). OCLC: 221778313 (one copy, in Australia). First edition (first printing). String-tied embossed wrappers. Yapped edges somewhat bent and worn, as expected, else a very good or better example of a scarce book.

Northampton, MA: Publicado por Simeon Butler, 1828. First Thus. Hardcover. Very good. A rather curious Spanish-language imprint from Massachusetts, and not the more typical Philadelphia and New York. This is a translation of the diplomat Alexander Hill Everett's 1827 book, America: Or, a General Survey of the Political Situation of the Several Powers of the Western Continent, with Conjectures on Their Future Prospects. The book was written while Everett was the US ambassador (minister) to Spain. Despite that position, he writes favorably of Spanish American independence efforts. The publisher was listed as an agent for the sale of the English-language edition. It is possible that Everett, a Bostonian, commissioned the translation, although the copyright is assigned to the publisher. iii, 296 pages. First edition of the Spanish translation. A very good copy in original orange boards with a tan cloth spine.

México [Mexico City]: Tip. de la Viuda é Hijos de Murguia, 1878. First Edition. Pamphlet. A fortune-telling system "fixed to the meridian of Mexico" [Arreglado al meridiano de México]. Ca. 71 pages. 5-1/4 by 3-5/16 inches. Corner missing from front cover, not affecting any text, but generally very good.

Mexico, DF: Editorial Latitudes, 1978. First Edition. Trade Paperback. Fine. 31 pages. Poems, with a long introduction by the author. Coleccio el pozo y el pendulo, no. V. The series was edited by the Mexican American poet Ernesto Trejo. Published in an edition of 1000 copies. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in wrappers (paperback).

Matanzas, Cuba: Centro de Promoción Literaria José Jacinto Milanés and Ediciones Vigía, 2013. A single sheet, 3-1/2 by 15 inches, folded and inserted into a paper container decorated with a collage with a house design and a twine loop for hanging. 5 by 10 inches. Edition size not noted, but probably 200 copies. A poem dedicated to Matanzas by a Cuban writer, issued to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death. Designed by Adrián Milián. OCLC: BLSTP CRU FQG FXG HLS IQU IYU NOC NUI NYP PAU TJC UCW. Near fine.

Holguín, Cuba: Casa Editora Cuadernos Papiro, 2014. Ephemera. 11 sheets, 6-3/4 by 11-3/4 inches, in a 12-1/2 by 11 inches. Published in an edition of 100 copies. Each sheet offers a traditional Cuban recipe printed letterpress on handmade paper. The recipes are inserted into a shaped folder reminiscent of a basket with a thick string handle, a mounted sun design, and an attached cloth napkin. The recipes include chatinos de platano verde (plantain chips), tamal en hojas (tamales), and matajíbaro (a plantain-and-pork dumpling). OCLC: EEM FQG FXG IQU NAM NDD NOC NUI STF TXJ VWM (for the 2014 edition; there is also a 2018 version). Near fine.

Mexico: Tipografia de J. Rivera, Hijo y Compañía, 1871. First Edition. Very good. A Spanish translation of Great European Conflict. Franco-Prussian War: Chassepot - Rifle vs. Zundnadelgewehr, or the Needle Gun: Real Cause of the Struggle by a Mexican army general. 208 pages plus four inserted lithographic portraits of the leaders of the conflict (including Napoleon III and Otto von Bismarck), with a folding bird's-eye view of the defenses around Paris and a folding map of the theater of war. First edition (of this translation). Bound in full Mexican purple leather stamped with geometric designs. Spine faded to brown.

Mexico, DF: Editorial Latitudes, 1978. First Edition. Trade Paperback. Fine. 79 pages. 4 by 6-1/2 inches. A posthumous selection of Pellicer's (1897-1977) poems published as Coleccion el pozo y el pendulo, X. This series was edited by the Mexican American poet, Ernesto Trejo. An edition of 1000 copies. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in wrappers (paperback).

Mexico: Imprenta de I. Cumplido, 1874. Hardcover. Good. A rather curious book. Published a few years after the emperor Maximilian I, who hade been installed by the French, was deposed and executed, I originally thought this was bit of anti-French propaganda. The catalog of the Biblioteca Nacional de Mexico (edited by José Vigil, 1890) attributes the book to the French journalist Clément Bertie-Marriott. However, it turns out to be a reprint of an 1855 book from the same publishers, issued under the title Las prisiones del estado, published in 1855. The two volumes collect five long histories of French prisons. The three pieces in the second volume all turn out to be unattributed bootlegs of Alexandre Dumas (père) novels. I was unable to identify the source of the chapter on the Bastille, in volume one. The second part of volume one is Camille Leynadier's Le donjon de Vincennes. viii, 258, 270 pages. Good copies in typically Mexican quarter-leather bindings of the period. Heavily worn at the edges.

Mexico: Ediciones de "América" Revista Antológica, 1950. First Edition. Good. An early book of poems (her third or fourth?), published in an edition of 300 copies. Castellanos was a major Mexican literary figure in the 20th century, part of the Generación de los 50. She died in 1974, at 49 years old, while serving as the Mexican ambassador to Israel. 65 pages. First edition (first printing). This copy has been bound in full dyed calf, preserving the original front and rear wrappers. The leather binding is faded and worn at the edges. This copy is inscribed to noted Mexican playwright Emilio Carballido, another member of the Generación de los 50. The inscription is hard to read, but it is something like, "Para Emilio Carballido, uno de nuestros más sólidos valores. Con el afecto de su amiga, Rosario." [Roughly: For Emilio Carballido, one of our most valuable talents. With affection, from his friend, Rosario.] Very scarce signed, and especially so as an association copy.

Bellamar (Matanzas), Cuba: Ediciones El Fortín, 2019. First Edition. Near fine. A handmade artists' book interpretation of Amelia Vento Pichardo de Tápanes' 1933 collection of poems by the late, great Cuban book artist Rolando Estévez, published in an edition of 36 copies. The text is color photocopies of individual pages from an original copy of De mi jardín interior on an abstract watercolor background. The title page is embroidered on a piece of cloth with ragged edges. The illustrations are color copies of collages with paper additions to a few pages. Estévez's afterword is reproduced from a handwritten manuscript. The cover is black paper adorned only with a mid-20th century matchbook in a pocket on the front cover. Estévez was the creative force behind Ediciones Vigía, the acclaimed Cuban book-arts cooperative for decades. He left Vigía in the 2010s and formed the El Fortín to make more personal books with smaller limitations. 18 leaves. Not in OCLC. A near fine copy; no. 24 of 36… Read More

Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Mandrágora, 1939. First Edition. Ephemera. Near Fine. [12] pages. Quarto (7.25" x 10") pamphlet with the single sheet, "Defensa de la Mandragora" laid in. A key document in the Chilean surrealist movement and of Latin American poetry. The three main Latin American surrealist writers-el grupo de la Mandragora-lay out their positions on poetry and politics, aligning themselves with Andre Breton and Salvador Dali in Europe and Vicente Huidobro of Chile. The three lectures are "Problemas del intelectual frente a los falso intelectuales" by Gomez (later Gomez-Correa), "Defensa de la poesia" by Arenas, and "Poesia, revolucion" by Cid. They accuse Pablo Neruda of plagiarizing the Indian Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, the Uruguayan Carlos Sabat Ercasty, and "other American mediocrities (otros mediocridades americanas)." Neruda is also charged with betraying poetry in order to enjoy the fruits of official approval. The Argentinean Raul Gonzalez Tunon is fervently… Read More

Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 2012. 136 pages. 7-3/4 by 9-3/4 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Trébol. A collection of short stories illustrated by Abdel de la Campa Escaig with drawings and collages. The text and illustrations are printed on brown recycled paper. OCLC: BNCJM DEIAI EEM EYM FQG FXG LRU NDD NOC PAU UMK. Fine.

Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Seix Barral, 1981. First Edition. Trade paperback. Very good. The first edition of the book that was published in English as The Garden Next Door, a dark, comic novel of a Chilean writer whose life is beginning to come apart. 264 pages. First edition (states "primera edición" on the copyright page). A very good copy in wrappers (a paperback original). Inscribed by Donoso, "Para Luisa (?) con un cordial saludo, Jose Donoso.

Valparaíso, Chile: El Umbral Secreto, 2010. First Edition. Near fine. The limited edition catalog of the 2010 international Surrealist conclave held in Chile, housed in a wooden box with a hinged lid. This box includes the four catalogs, one of artwork, one of poetry, one of prose works, and one titled "Más de teoría" (Beyond theory). The latter is perfectbound; the other three consist of narrow sheets of paper printed in color on both sides, with a hole drilled in one corner for binding with a bolt and a wing nut. The lid is screenprinted on both sides in black. The top has the title and an illustration; the lower lid is screenprinted with a short piece by Octavio Paz on Surrealism (beginning, "El surrealismo ha sido la manzana en el árbol de la sintaxis" [Surrealism has been the apple on the syntax tree] reprinted from his "Arbol adentro"). Other items laid in to the box are: 1) A metal totem on a paper and foam-core stand by the Chilean artist Mario Murua; 2) A box of matches designed by… Read More

Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. A portrait of rich environmental and cultural heritage of the Amazon, told through oral histories, stories, and published accounts. The author is a Brazil expert at UC Berkeley and did extensive field work in South America. 332 pages. First edition (first printing with a numberline ending in 1). A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. This copy is inscribed by the author and her husband, Paul Zingg to Stephen Jay Gould, the noted paleontologist. With a posthumous bookplate marking the provenance.

(N.-pl.): Geological Society of America, 1948. First Edition. Pamphlet. Fine. Offprint from the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, vol. 59, pp. 1217-1265. Three folding maps. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in wrappers (pamphlet).

Asturias: Luna de Abajo, 1985. Second Edition. Trade paperback. Near fine. 140 pages. Second edition. Near fine in wrappers (paperback). Inscribed by the author.

Holguín: Casa Editora Cuadernos Papiro, 2016. 33 leaves. 12-1/2 by 13-3/4 inches. An edition of 100 copies, issued with at least two cover designs and typefaces. Poems, printed letterpress with the text set on a linotype. Bound Japanese-style. The paper is handmade from various plant and fiber sources. Six of the leaves have minimalist serigraphs made jointly by Freddy García Azze and Wiskelmis Rodríguez González. Each is titled, signed ("Freddy-Wiskelmis"), and numbered in pencil at the bottom of the sheet. The text block variants are 1a) poems black ink with a sans serif typeface for the poem titles and the initial letters or 1b) poems in green ink with a black-letter typeface used for the poem titles and the initial letters. The cover variants are 2a) the cover title printed in red using a script typeface with the author's name in a linocut and the binding done using thin rope and 2b) the cover title printed from a linocut and the author's name printed using a serif typeface, all in black,… Read More