SELECTED LETTERS

by Federico Garcia Lorca ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1983

With only a small handful of letters from the 1930s, this slim selection of Garcia Lorca's correspondence presents the poet and playwright chiefly as an exuberant young enthusiast--pouring out creative plans to friends and colleagues, enclosing drafts of works-in-progress, usually surrendering himself to lyrical outbursts. There's occasionally some (often-morbid) introspection here, as in this 1918 rumination: ""At the bottom of my soul there's an enormous desire to be very childlike, very poor, very hidden. I see before me many problems, many entrapping eyes, many conflicts in the battle between head and heart and all my sentimental flowering seeks to enter a golden garden. . . .' For the most part, however, young Federico seems to enjoy his easy, dilletante-ish life, his friends, his talent: ""I believe I belong among these melodic poplars and lyrical rivers, with their continuous still waters, because my heart is truly at ease and I laugh at my passions which in the tower of the city attack me like a herd of panthers."" There is talk of Andalusian heritage, puppet-shows, literary magazines, music-making (serenading Manuel de Falla!). He uses his letters to try out new images: ""My hands are full of dead kisses (apples of snow with the trembling furrow of lips) and I hope to throw them into the broken air in order to catch newer ones."" He writes of literary politics (in Madrid ""everything turns into gossip, cabals, calumnies and American banditry""), of his own building reputation (""This gypsy myth of mine annoys me a little""), of soulmate Dali's talent--though he disagrees fundamentally on some points. (""You can't bring the criteria of the plastic arts to literary art."") And while there are darker-toned remarks in the late 1920s (references to ""ugly things""), politics and sexuality tend to emerge only obliquely. Rather sparsely annotated, and unrevealing in crucial areas: an important but limited addition to the English-translated Lorca canon--primarily for students of his poetry.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1983

ISBN: 0811208737

Page Count: -

Publisher: New Directions

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION