Cien Anos de Soledad [One Hundred Years of Solitude].

GARCIA MARQUEZ, Gabriel.

$30,000.00

Item Number: 132338

Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1967.

First edition of the author’s masterpiece which is recognized as one of the most significant works in the Spanish literary canon. Octavo, original illustrated wrappers. Presentation copy, inscribed and dated by the author on the dedication page with a large drawing of a flower, “Para Juana, con todo el corazon, la flor mas alla, Gabo.” [For Juana, with all my heart, the flower beyond]. The recipient, Juana Munoz, was a close friend of Marquez and wife of Sergio Munoz. They met in 1964 in Mexico City in the home of author Carlos Fuentes, who often hosted a literary open house or “salon” on Sundays. At the time, Marquez was largely unknown to the literary world and still a “starving artist.” Even after his fame, however, Marquez remained very down-to-earth, and the men stayed close friends for over 50 years. When Muñoz Bata moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970’s, they continued to get together regularly with their wives after Marquez purchased a home there.  Sergio Muñoz Bata writes a weekly syndicated column published in 18 newspapers across 11 countries in the hemisphere. He is also both a former Los Angeles Times editorial board member and Executive Editor of La Opinión. A wonderful association copy with great provenance. In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude chronicles the life of Macondo, a fictional town based in part of Garcia Marquez's hometown of Aracataca, Colombia, and seven generations of the founding family, the Buendias. He creates a complex world with characters and events that display the full range of human experience. For the reader, the pleasure of the novel derives from its fast-paced narrative, humor, vivid characters, and fantasy elements. In this 'magic realism', the author combines imaginative flights of fancy with social realism to give us images of levitating priests, flying carpets, a four-year-long rainstorm, and a young woman ascending to heaven while folding sheets" (NYPL Books of the Century 31). At the conclusion of the 1970's this book was voted by the editors of The New York Times Book Review to be not only the best book published in the last ten years but the book most likely to still be read one hundred years from then.