Cuba Libre: Poems

Los Angeles: Anderson & Ritchie, 1948. First edition (presumed). Narrow quarto with pictorial wraps and cloth spine with gilt stamping; xi, 98 pages: illustrations; deckle edges; 28 cm Deckle edges have some browning but pages are clean, circular blind stamp from library of Irving Rosenfeld; rich earthy ink tones for text and illustrations; minor sunning and scuffing to wraps; corners a bit bumped and chipped, else quite handsome, a very good(+) copy. Hardcover.

In English. A limited edition of 500 copies. From the introduction by Ben F. Carruthers: "Cuba Libre was originally a cry for freedom and in these poems it still is. Since the days of the Cuban struggle for independence, however, we yanquis have come to know it as a delightful drink concocted from the best of light Cuban rum, a dash of limon (lime to you) and cola poured over ice. Cuba's rum is the symbl of its fiery passions, its lifeblood, its livelihood. In these pages it must represent the white blood in the veins of our mulatto poet, Nicolas Guillen. As in the perfect Cuba Libre, it is fused with the dark cola which for us is the symbol of his African heritage. The limon is the bitterness of frustration lending piquancy and genius to the verse as the sour juice does to the drink". Nicolas Guillen (1902-1989) was a journalist, activist and poet, who worked with Langston Hughes and is considered an early member of the Negritude movement in literature. He is best remembered as the national poet of Cuba (wikipedia). // Cuba, cuban poetry, afro-cuban poetry, translation