NERUDA, Pablo We are Many

Small square 4to., original handmade textured paper boards, lettered in gilt to spine; together in the matching handmade paper dustwrapper lettered in red to front panel and spine; unpaginated [pp. 32 pages of poems printed in red on cream paper, + 2 photographic leaves; + die cut title page in the shape of a hammer by Jim Dine + additional card leaf with a facsimile handwritten note by Neruda]; the book very near fine, with some light spotting offset from bookplate to ffep; the wrapper with some splits and chips to the ends of spine and folds, and with a couple of faint panels of sunning to the front panel. Provenance: from the collection of noted book collector Garech Browne, with his bookplate to the front paste-down. 

Limited edition, one of just 100 copies specially bound in hardcovers, numbered and signed by both Neruda and Reid to the title page. This copy no. 4. Each of the poems are offered in both English and the original Spanish, either to a single page or on facing pages. 

A wonderful collection of poems by Pablo Neruda, containing two photographs, one a portrait of the poet by Hans Ehrman. The facsimile note to the rear reads: “I am arriving in London on the 1st or 2nd July invited by Ted Hughes. Will be 10 days. Hope to see you every one of them. Always, Pablo”. The title poem explores Neruda’s sense of self, and the many facets of a single man. A similar theme is echoed in ‘Too Many Names’, in which he writes: 

No one can claim the name of Pedro,

nobody is Rosa or Maria,

all of us are dust or sand, 

all of us are rain under rain

Other themes include death, innocence, cruelty, hunger and poverty, with several references to his homeland. ‘Galloping in the South’ likely refers to his time as a political fugitive and his escape over the Andes. 

Garech Domnagh Browne (1939 – 2018) was an eccentric art collector who amassed a legendary collection of over 20,000 rare books and manuscripts at his famous Gothic estate in County Wicklow. A patron of the arts, he founded Claddagh Records, was a patron of the arts, and was associated with a swathe of musicians, writers and poets, including among his many friends Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Robert Graves and Samuel Beckett, as well as Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Bono and Michael Jackson. 

A wonderful example. 

SKU: 1800240