An extraordinary unpublished manuscript2

HUIDOBRO, Vincente.

Partial Manuscript of the Unpublished Play Entitled España y Anti-España, Accompanied by a Complete Corrected Typescript of the Same Text. 1935 c.. Thirty-six holograph pages in three slim buff-colored stapled tall octavo notebooks, containing the first three-quarters of the manuscript of the unpublished play, "Espana y Anti-Espana." The holograph manuscript breaks off in mid-page with the words of General Franco, "Todos los sacerdotes estan con nostros." ("All the priests are on our side.") The manuscript is accompanied by a corrected carbon typescript of forty-four pages, in which the action proceeds to its conclusion -- in which Death awards the Fascist generals the Orden del Buitre Septicefalo (Order of the Seven Headed Vulture) in honour of the magnificent banquet with which they have provided him. At once a political satire and a monumental drama á la Brecht, the protagonists include the three Fascist generals Franco, Millan and Quiepo as well as the spirit of the great Spanish hero, El Cid (to whose ancestry the family of Huidobro's mother can be traced) and Spain herself, portrayed as a "una estatua hieratica." At the age of 43, Huidobro himself, scion of a very wealth Chilean family and long resident of Europe, fought on the side of the Republic against the forces of Franco, until the point at which the dispiriting outcome of the struggle was all but assured. Huidobro is among the great poets of the Spanish language in the Twentieth Century, to our mind, the greatest poet of Latin America. Virtually no manuscript material of his remains in private hands.

$65000.00

CORTÁZAR, Julio..

Seven Holograph Manuscripts, Signed, Comprising all but one of the Stories Included in Cortazar's first Collection of Stories, Bestiario (1951). c. 1949-1950. c 1949-1950. The six manuscripts total eighty-one pages, written in all but one case on both sides of various sized ruled sheets. The stories include, "Lejana," "La casa tomada," Carta a una señorita en París," "Ómnibus," "Circe" and "Las puertas del cielo," "Bestario." Several of the present works are regarded as among the greatest short writings by this modern master of the form, whose collections Final del juego and Historias de cronopios y famas, Las armas secretas and Todos los fuegos el fuego are among the finest, most inventive and most disconcerting examples of the form since Borges and Kafka. All of the present manuscripts show corrections on most pages, some of substance, though they would appear to be late versions, with the corrections having been incorporated into the first edition of the printed text. As the majority of Cortazar's manuscripts reside in institutional collections, primarily Princeton University, the opportunity to acquire manuscript material by one of the greatest writers of the latter half of the Twentieth Century are few. A few of the items are a touch darkened, but all are, in essence, very good. A amplified description will be made available to interested parties.

$220000.00

BORGES, Jorge Luis..

Working Manuscript of the Story, "La biblioteca de Babel." 1940 c.. Eight small quarto sheets and one smaller (truncated) sheet, removed from a ledger notebook. A splendid manuscript, showing numerous excisions, corrections and additions. A bravura performance, which first appeared in book form in that anthology of bravura performances, El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan. An early version was published as an essay in Sur under the title "La biblioteca total." Like all the pieces eventually included in the epochal volume Ficciones, "La biblioteca de Babel" is simultaneously whimsical and menacing, hilarious and terrifying. Characterized by its narrator as a "pointless and verbose epistle," it is a parable of the impossibility of coherence and the unknowability of God. Set in a vast, perhaps infinite, library, which contains, in a complex of interlocking hexagons, every book that could conceivably exist in every conceivable language-to be precise, it contains every possible arrangement of the "twenty-five orthographic characters," the letters of the alphabet, the comma, the period, and the space. While this total is bogglingly vast, it is also finite. This dystopian world, simultaneously fanatically rigid and hopelessly chaotic, has long been plagued by schisms and despair. Though filled on occasion with giddy, millennial hope, it seems to have grown increasingly empty, and now appears to have been all but abandoned. Richly autobiographical in detail, "La biblioteca de Babel" is at once a poised, and by no means overly subtle, critique of the pretensions of twentieth century literary culture, and a melancholy reflection on Borges's own severely constricted life. The objects of the story's rueful satire are not difficult to discern: totalitarianism, the cult of Joyce, surrealism, and the Ultraism of his own youth; but also Oulipo, which had yet to be invented and which would seem, it fact, to have been inspired by the story; making it a charming illustration, of course, of the library's governing principle. Anyone interested in bibliography and textual criticism will find their concerns addressed in a manner both comforting and mocking. Borges's first important story, and after all, perhaps the single story that remains most famous in his opus, somehow akin to the position of Die Verwandlung in the work of Kafka. In the comparison of the universe to a library, Borges's imaginary world has resonated in the profoundest way with his constituency readers. Of course, he was in fact a librarian himself for a significant period in his life, so perhaps, also like Kafka, he merely wrote the world in the peculiar way that he lived it, at least in this instance. This is the only known manuscript version of this iconic work of twentieth century culture. Very few literary manuscripts of this stature in any language remain in private hands.

$500000.00

BORGES, Jorge Luis.

Holograph manuscript of the Story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." 1940 c. c. 1940. Nine large (15 ½" x 10 ¾") sheets, removed from a ledger. A late state of the manuscript of one of the most influential stories of the 20th century: an illuminati tale of sorts, in which a cabal of scholars perpetrate a hoax, first by insinuating articles about a non-existent culture into the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, and then by creating the encyclopedia which describes that entire country, or perhaps its entire planet. An paranoia-stirring arm-chair adventure story of alternate history, but alternate history already insinuated into the culture of an unsuspecting world. Coming back to the official world upon reading Tlön, one distrusts the very ground beneath one's feet, in addition to the books in one's library or, nowadays, to give some skeptical consideration to Wikipedia as an organ of knowledge. One of the greatest literary masterpieces ever concocted. Although representaing a late state of the text, the manuscript bears corrections and additions throughout. Signed by Borges at the close. A cultural artifact of the first rank. Nietzsche once said something to the effect that he wish to say what others had tried (and failed) to say in a hundred pages in only ten. Borges managed to say in a paragraph, a sentence, sometimes even in a phrase, that which no previous volume of whatever size had ever reckoned with. Although rather brief, the present manuscript, with its companion pieces in Ficciones, forever altered the world, nay, the very space, of literarure.

$625000.00

GOMEZ DE LA SERNA, Ramón.

Holograph Manuscript of the Article "El cuento de....no acabar/ Pesadilla del pato y del pavo." 1953. Nine 16cm x 23 cm yellow pages. A working manuscript for the article "El cuento de....no acabar/ Pesadilla del pato y del pavo" (pub. in Saber Vivir No. 106, christmas 1953). Described as some bizarre nightmare occuring on Christmas Eve, Gómez de la Serna creates a parallel between what he calls the sleepwalkers of the duck and those of the turkey. Yes, it is that bizarre. He explains the inherent differences between both fowl, the duck being more graceful and poetic. In the end, it comes down to a battle between the two, a battle that will be repeated yet again, all of which actually appears to be some grotesque metaphor for those who eat either bird on Christmas Eve. Perhaps the brightly colored yellow paper in which it is written did have a nightmarish effect on the author. Hand-numbered and signed by Gómez de la Serna, with multiple corrections and additions throughout, and a note on the upper left corner of the first page requesting galley proofs of the article.

$3500.00

VALLE-INCLÁN, Ramón del Valle.

Archive of correspondence and two holograph poems, one unpublished. 1910. One poem written on three 8.5"x6.5" pages written in purple ink, with contemporary, improvised clear-tape hinges, signed; one letter on a folded leave, written on four sides, signed and dated; another similarly folded letter, written on two sides; a postcard with Valle-Inclán's letterhead from his Madrid residence, unsigned; a promotional postcard for the French translation of "The memoirs of the Marquis of Bradomín. One of the most influential Spanish authors of the generation of '98, Valle-Inclán is better known as a prose writer and a playwright, than as a poet. "Para Luisa" is a highly modernist-style poem in the vein of Rubén Darío. Valle-Inclán encountered the nascent Modernist movement during his visit to Mexico, in 1893, and became its most ardent proponent in Spain. By definition, the Generation of 98' is considered to be Modernist in essence, and Valle-Inclán's tetralogy "The Memoirs of the Marquis of Bradomín," the four "Sonatas" (1902-1905), are deemed to be the climax of Spanish modernism. Rubén Darío himself, a good friend of Valle-Inclán, wrote a "Soneto Autumnal" as a preface to the Sonata de Primavera, and dedicated it in jest to Valle-Inclán's character, "To... the Marquis de Bradomín, from Rubén Darío, his friend". Valle-Inclán's style would eventually evolve into what has been called the "esperpento", a sort of expressionistic aesthetic of deformation, an almost caricaturesque style whose origins could be traced,to the writings of Quevedo and the paintings of Goya. The poem "Para Lucía" is intended as a personal homage, written to honor a lady friend, Lucía Díaz Sáenz Valiente, whom he had met in Buenos Aires during his second visit to the Americas. He was accompanying his much younger wife, the actress Josefina Blanco, on a theater tour. The author's relationship with Díaz Sáenz Valiente is not documented, except for these meager leaves, and there is no firm evidence that there was anything other than friendship between the two. However, a certain hint of infatuation permeates these verses, as if Valle-Inclán were resigned to admire the beauty from afar, with the pointless yearning of the courtly-love poet. The poem is as of yet unpublished, to the best of our knowledge, as it must have remained stored away for nearly a century. The poem "No digas de dolor..." was published originally in "Aromas de Leyendas" (1907). In the transcription, the author has deliberately eliminated the first three seven verse stanzas, dealing with an old, seemingly abandoned mansion, as well as the last one, which is an "estribillo" in Galician language, probably from a traditional song, in which a young lady laments the departure of the beloved. This omission could very well be a routine correction brought about by a later reading, as it is often the case with poets. However, given that the poem is included in this particular lot, it must be considered in its context, as it was obviously presented by the poet to the young lady. Valle-Inclán's the resulting poem is rather different once the dryness and distance of the old mansion are eliminated. A smiling young girl on a stone balcony, behind a glass window, is contrasted with the sadness of pilgrims on the nearby road who lament "the pain of being born / and of living tomorrow [of still being alive tomorrow]". The poet exhorts them not to "speak of pain" to the girl, to "those budding lips". Thus, the poem is narrowed, from a wider metaphor, to a contrast between the innocence of the girl and those who, like the poet himself, are preoccupied with "the pain of life / which is fear and pain". Again, Valle-Inclán appears to be infatuated with the girl, tough he sees the impossibilities of anything else than hinting at his yearning under the guise of a simple friendship. The poem is signed by Valle-Inclán and dated "Buenos Aires, 11/V/1910. The promotional postcard is illustrated with a modernist drawing of a seminude, nymph-like woman, and it announces the . It appears to have been included with his book "Cuento de abril", which he says in the postcard, is presenting to Luisa. The short letter, signed but undated, was sent from Buenos Aires, as Valle-Inclán apologizes for not being able to go for dinner as his young daughter has a fever. He sends the regards of his wife, and prays that the fever disappears tomorrow, since their departure is imminent and he yearns to be next to her. The longer letter, signed and dated "Santiago de Chile, 6/XI/1910." He apologizes for not having written, but assures her that he thought about writing to her every day, and since he didn't, he still thought about her every day, "which is not to say that after writing I don't remember you anymore", he adds. As his return to Buenos Aires is imminent, he wants to spend much time of the three days there, before leaving for Spain again, conversing with her. He wishes that she would go to Spain to visit, marry there, and become a Spaniard. His wife sends regards to Lucía's mother and one Eugenia. The letterhead postcard is a mere note regarding a letter sent recently, and it is unsigned and undated. Interestingly, however, he uses the familiar "tú" form, as opposed to the formal "usted", which is not the case in the other correspondence. Was there a secret correspondence that didn't survive? Perhaps those letters in which the formality of the moderate letters was done away with? One can only guess—and hope that they do resurface one day, if they to exist. Both in the poem and in the letters, Valle-Inclán's alter-ego, the Marquis de Bradomín, seems to want to surface as an old Casanova charmer. After all, many of his contemporaries, and also the critics who have delved into the mind of the Marqués de Bradomín, agree that Valle-Inclán modeled him after himself. A magnificent archive of previously unknown and mostly unpublished material which leaves the doors open to delightful speculation.

$12500.00