Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 260

Price Realized: $ 1,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
FIRST SPANISH TRANSLATION OF WHEATLEY? (LITERATURE.) Phillis Wheatley. "Literaturas de los Negros," in a Mexican literary magazine, Recreo de las Familias. 16 lithograph plates (none of Wheatley). 482 pages. 8vo, contemporary speckled gilt calf, minor wear; foxing to plates. Mexico, [1837]-1838

Additional Details

The article "Literaturas de los Negros" begins with a biography of the poet Phillis Wheatley, and Spanish translations of three of her poems are included: "Sobre la Muerte de un Niño Negro" ("On the Death of J.C., an Infant"); "Himno de la Mañana" ("An Hymn to the Morning"); and "Al Conde Darmouth" ("To the Rt. Hon. William, Earl Of Dartmouth"). They are taken from Henri Gregore's 1808 "De la littérature des Nègres," and thus presumably translated from English to French to Spanish. They appear to be the first Spanish-language translations of Wheatley's work in print.

The volume is a complete compilation of the 12 issues of a Mexican literary magazine in book form, with a collective title page in place of the monthly title pages. The other entries lean heavily toward Spanish-language authors, with some exceptions including Victor Hugo and Lord Byron. An article on William / Guillermo Miller, the British-born hero of Chilean and Peruvian independence, appears on pages 64-70, and a comparison of George Washington with Simón Bolívar on pages 463-5. We trace none others at auction.