Manolin: Novela Original

Canel, Eva. Manolin: Novela Original. Habana: Romero Rubio, 1891. First Edition. 19 cm,. 215 pp.; ownership inscription on half-title “Maria de Lourdes,”; in contemporary three-quarter calf, spine with five compartments and gilt title, rubbed, esp. at head of spine and rear corners, marbled boards scratched.

Romantic novel by the prolific Spanish journalist Eva Canel (1857-1932) who, in addition to writing seven novels and four plays, published a satirical newspaper in Havana, reported on the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893) for papers across Latin America, lived in Argentina, Bolivia, and Cuba, where she founded her own press, and in the ultimate paradox, was a friend to both Jose Martí and Valeriano Weyler.

Despite the unusual scope of her activities, Canel was not a feminist. During her coverage of the Columbian Exposition she wrote a confusing defense of traditional Spanish womanhood. “In Spain we know nothing of women’s congresses, because the women who struggle and who study, and who enter the literary, scientific, artistic, or journalistic arena, do so on the same footing as men, the culture of both sexes being thus measured by the same standard … what does it matter if Spanish girls are not allowed the liberty of traveling and going out unaccompanied…?” (A perfectly hilarious question for a woman who wrote a travelogue about Tierra del Fuego.)

But Canel thought nothing of writing and reading about scandalous affairs and female sexuality of the kind encountered in this book and the 19th-century romance genre more generally.

The novel was included in an exhibition of rare Cuban books at the University of Miami, though oddly their copy is a second edition published in Madrid. WorldCat identifies approximately four other institutional holdings in the US.

SOLD

Cited:

Canel, Eva. “The Spanish Woman.” The North American Review 157, no. 444 (1893): 566–70.

Zequeira, María. “Eva Canel, Una Mujer De Paradojas.” Anuario De Estudios Americanos, 2001.

Four Artists’ Books

Four Artists’ Books by Ediciones Vigia, 1990-1997. Early and uncommon examples from the famed Cuban artists’ book collective, a collaboration between artist Rolando Estévez and poet Alftedo Zaldivar. Each book is assembled by hand and includes hand coloring, found and recycled materials, and collaged elements.

Composed of:

Burgos, Julieta and Camilo Venegas Yero, C, Illus. Los Reyes Illuminados. Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía. 1990. 16 x 17.5 cm, 18 pp.; toned, profusely illus. with some hand coloring; tied with brown cord, collaged wrappers, wrappers with minor closed splitting on top edges. Signed by Burgos. No. 53.

2 OCLC holdings: Univ. Miami and Notre Dame, as of December 2022 no others on the market.

Venegas Yero, Camilo. La venta de miel. Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 1997. 2-.5 x 16 cm, [18] pp.; mimeograph with handwritten titles, stamps, collage elements; tied with brown string, pictorial front wrapper with collage elements. No. 103 (out of 200?).

1 OCLC holding: Univ. of Miami. As of December 2022 no others on the market.

Mendez, Roberto. Cena en casa de Levi, A.D . 1573. Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 1990. Poem printed on four brown paper sheets, glued vertically to form a continuous single sheet, folded seven times and tied with a paper handle at head. Front panel with hand coloring. No. 139/200. Illustration and design by Rolando Estévez.

2 OCLC holdings: Univ. of Miami, Univ. of Utah. As of December 2022 no others on the market.

[Alcaeus] Ferraté, Juan y María Eugenia Alegría. Untitled [Alceo]. Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, n.d. ca. 1990s. 19.5 x 15 cm, [10] pp.; reproducing 3 poems by Alcaeus in Spanish with original Greek on facing page, followed by bibliography. No. 47. Illustration and design by Rolando Estévez. There appear to be two editions with different pictorial wrappers. The other edition is titled “Hablar de poesia”.

3 OCLC holdings: Univ. of Miami, Notre Dame, UC-Berkeley..

16 Cuban Tourist Pamphlets and Handbills

(Cuba) (Tourism) 16 Cuban Tourist Pamphlets and Handbills, ca. 1950-1983. Most approx. 23 cm (folded) multi-fold single sheets with up to [12] pp.; color illus., many with maps, varying conditions, two with manuscript annotations recto, overall about Good.

With an equal number of pre- and post-1959 examples, this small collection tracks the shifts in tourism that occurred in Cuba after the Revolution. Changes in marketing and activities focused on a largely European, rather than American, visitor, introducing a new emphasis on camping and nature (rather than hunting and clubbing). Examples from 1960-1983 published by the Instituto Nacional de la Industria Turística.

Includes a number of pamphlets for the Isla de Pinos/Isla de la Juventud, including two pre-1960 examples featuring the modernist new annex of the Hotel Santa Fe, now gone?

$400

Recuerdos de la Cuba que Dejamos

(Cuba) (Exile) Recuerdos de la Cuba que Dejamos [cover title]. Forest Hills, N.Y. : AZEFA Trading. Co., n.d. [1963? 1966?]. Oblong 23 cm, [24] pp.; bilingual color photobook, reproducing 79 images “in full natural color.” Stapled color wrappers, a bit worn, rubbed at spine.

Book memorializing midcentury Cuba before the Revolution. Spanish and English introductions are not the same, but both invoke a beloved “free” Cuba, the patriotism of Cubans living in exile in the US, and propose a “second liberation” that is close at hand.

Images focus on architectural and urban features with an emphasis on modern development before 1959. Possibly issued twice, or simultaneously, in Miami and New York.

Six OCLC holdings.

$125

Nineteen Press Photographs of Havana Riots, President Céspedes, and La Pentarquía

(Cuba) Nineteen Press Photographs of Havana Riots, President Céspedes, and La Pentarquía, 1933. Vintage silver prints, trimmed to various sizes, most close to 16.5 x 11.5 cm. Sixteen with typed English captions pasted verso, all with Vidal (Madrid) stamps, some with editing pencil marks, also verso. Lightly worn, three groups of prints (4, 2, and 2) taped together by a contemporary newspaper editor for layout. Overall VG.

Dramatic photographs taken during the first “Cuban crisis” of August-September 1933, including the Havana strikes and riots that led to the resignation and exile of President Gerardo Machado, the formation of a provisional government under President Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, and the subsequent coup d’etat that led to the latter’s removal and the establishment of the Pentarchy coalition.

The majority are focused on looting and violence in front of the Presidential Palace and the offices of El Heraldo newspaper in August 1933. Two captions identify members of the ABC resistance and other student organizations that fought against Machado and “El Porra,” the regime’s secret police.

Several other images show the Céspedes cabinet and moments from during the Sergeant’s Revolt in which it was overthrown. The constitutional crisis began decades of political instability and US interference, leading directly to the Batista dictatorship and eventually, to the Cuban Revolution.

No photographer identified but the captions were supplied by a US news organization. Stamps identify a Spanish agency founded by José Vidal.

$950

Cine Cubano. Año 1, No. 3 and Año 2, No. 6.

Guevara, Alfredo, Ed. Cine Cubano. Año 1, No. 3 (Nov. 1960) and Año 2, No. 6 (February 1962). La Habana: n.p., 1962. 2 issues, each: 4to, 82 pp.; profusely illustrated review of Cuban and international cinema; some edgewear, creases, or nicks; former with ex-libris stamp on p. 3, latter with loss to top corner of front wrap.

Early issues of the classic revolutionary film journal.

$75

Sala Permanente de Artes Plásticas de Cuba

Habana: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, n.d. (ca. 1955). 4to, 16 pp.; chiefly illustrations, with text describing the national collection of modern Cuban art and its installation in the brand new Palace of Fine Arts, designed by architect Alfonso Rodríguez Pichardo in color illus. wrpps., fair: rubbed with creases and warping, some small losses and a damp-stain affecting several pages (but not the images). Includes list of painters, sculptors, and printmakers whose work was publicly exhibited in this first iteration of the museum.

Very scarce celebration of Cuban modern art museum. OCLC locates 3 copies in North America.

$325