Spanish Language Poetry, San Francisco, 1868
Leyendas y romances. Ensayos poeticos
Publication: San Francisco: Enrique Payot y Cia. 1868. First Edition.
Notes: The first edition of what is likely the first Spanish-language literary work published on the West Coast of the United States. Gallardo (1831–1869; born in León, educated in Guadalajara, died in Napa) was a Mexican poet and dramatist who went into exile in San Francisco in 1857. In San Francisco, he started El republicano, a Spanish-language newspaper.
According to the San Francisco Daily Examiner (12 December 1868), these poems, "many of which were published in the Spanish press of this city," were "composed to preserve the national, religious and popular traditions and festivals of Mexico." The book was available at Henry Payot's bookstore at 640 Washington Street and half of the proceeds went to the Mexican Benevolent Society.
The poems are mostly personal and metaphorical, grouped into five books, each with a separate half-title pages. The poems are captioned with the place and date of their composition. Most were written in Mexico in the 1850s. The final fifty or so pages seem to be poems written in San Francisco, with the first few datelined at the "Casa de la Aduana" [Customs House] in early 1857. Others appear to be written in the houses of friends, others are simply designated "San Francisco." In the first San Francisco poem, "En el miércoles de ceniza" [On Ash Wednesday], Gallardo evokes the feeling of the unwilling immigrant, "Cruzo entre lloroso y triste / El átrio de San Francisco" [Somewhere between homesick and heartbroken, I emerged into San Francisco].
While poems about the Mexican immigrant experience had been published in US newspapers by 1868, I think this is the first time such poems had appeared in a book.
299, [1: blank], IX [including a poem in Italian and Spanish translation about the author by the book's printer, Carlo Dondero] pages.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). A very good copy in quarter calf and purple decorated paper-covered boards, bound by S. [Sinforoso] Banda, in Guadalajara, México; active in the 1870s. Light staining to the page edges; early gift inscription partially effaced.
Item No: #365217
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