Diario de Djelfa, con seis fotografias (1944)
Mexico City: Union Distribuidora de Ediciones, 1944. First Edition. Wraps. 7 x 4.75 inches, softcover, near fine copy, pages beginning to tan, pages unopened and uncut at top edges. 64 pp. of text, mainly poetry, followed by six photos of the labor camp in Djelfa, Algeria. Aub was a Spanish-Mexican literary figure of some note. In 1929, Aub joined the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and remained a lifelong member. During the Spanish Civil War, the Republican government posted him to Paris as a cultural attaché. In 1937, he was responsible for placing Picasso's "Guernica" on display at the International Exposition, and took part in the organisation of the Second Congress of Anti-Fascist Writers. By 1940, the Spanish State had come to consider him a serious opponent, and in March 1940 he was denounced to the new Vichy government of France as a militant communist and a "German-Jew", and therefore a possible spy or traitor. He was imprisoned for a year in Camp Vernet, then deported to the forced labor camp of Djelfa in Algeria.In 1942, with the help of a guard, he escaped. Soon thereafter, he was able to find passage from Casablanca to Mexico, followed shortly by his wife and children. Once he was settled in, he joined other Spanish exiles — including Luis Buñuel, with whom he formed a working friendship. In Mexico he worked as screenwriter. He also wrote for the newspapers Nacional and Excélsior and worked as a professor at the Film Academy in Mexico. He became a Mexican citizen in 1955 and lived in Mexico City until his death. Original editions of this powerful work are very rare in the trade. Near fine. Item #h44165
Price: $250.00