Early Account of La Llorona

La llorona, o el espectro de la media noche

Notes: Quite possibly this is the earliest book published in the United States about La Llorona, the mysterious weeping ghost-woman who haunts Mexican and Mexican American neighborhoods. In this version, purporting to be the true story of La Llorona, a woman in colonial-era Mexico kills her young son, born out of wedlock, to prevent an evil nobleman, the child's father, from taking him.

In advertisements in other Editorial Quiroga books, this book is described this as a "novela fantastica mexicana." Your cataloguer was unable to identify an earlier edition published in Mexico, although it was reprinted there in 1956. The decription therefore may refer to the location of the novel rather than its place of origin. The author seems to remain unidentified.

96 pages. This is one of two editions published by Quiroga with 1916 dates. Another version, with 88 pages and a typo in the title ("expectro"), is also known. Priority unknown.

Edition + Condition: Text pages browning, with some loss at the margins of the preliminary pages. Recently rebound in sturdy black cloth without the original wrappers.

Publication: San Antonio, TX: Editorial Quiroga, 1916.

Item No: #306070

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