Batalha de flores.

Rio de Janeiro, H. Antunes & C.ª, 1923.. FIRST EDITION. 8°, later dark blue buckram, imitating leather, smooth spine richly gilt with author, title, and date in gilt, single ruled gilt border on covers, original illustrated wrappers bound in. Outer and lower edges uncut. In good to very good condition. Author's signed and dated (1924) eleven-line presentation inscription on half title: "A D. José [illeg.] // - ao grande inter- // prete de Sevilha //of á, // muito grato pela // oferta dos seus // livros admiraveis, // o // Antonio Ferro // Madrid. // 24-6-924." 162 pp., (3 ll.). *** FIRST EDITION of this collection of "cronicas" on varied subjects, from the Praça da Figueira in Lisbon to "Charlot", from women in literature to the Louvre, to Vigo, and more. A facsimile reprint, with an introduction by the author's son, the philosopher, poet, author of fiction, essayist, literary critic, literary historian, university professor and translator António Quadros, appeared in 1988 or 1989, depending on which source is to be believed.António [Joaquim Tavares] Ferro (1895–1956), poet, journalist, "literary man of action" and politician, was a friend of such noted Modernists as Fernando Pessoa, Mário de Sá-Carneiro and Almada Negreiros, and was the editor of the periodical Orpheu, which inaugurated the Portuguese Modernist movement in 1915; he was one of the first to "discover" Fernando Pessoa. He also contributed to the modernist review Exílio, as well as to the more eclectic Contemporânea. Ferro participated in the Semana da Arte Moderna in São Paulo, and contributed a futurist manifesto to the Brazilian modernist review Klaxon. A journalist of international stature whose pieces were usually controversial, he interviewed, among others, D'Annunzio, Pius XI, Mussolini, Clémenceau, Maurras, Alfonso XIII, Primo de Rivera, and Poincaré. In 1925 he founded an avant-garde theater, the Teatro Novo, and in 1936 established the Teatro do Povo, intended to give dramatic performances in the furthest reaches of Portugal. For many years (beginning in 1933) he directed the Secretariado da Propaganda Nacional, where he helped to define the "política de espírito." Ferro was married to the noted poet Fernanda de Castro.*** On António Ferro, see Paula Costa in Machado, ed., Dicionário de literatura portuguesa, p. 194; João Bigotte Chorão in Biblos, II, 555-6; Dicionário cronológico de autores portugueses, III, 483-4; Rebello, 100 anos de teatro português pp. 74-5; Grande enciclopedia. XI, 221-2. Porbase locates six copies of the present edition (none with presentation inscriptions): two in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, two in the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, and one each at the Faculdade de Letras-Universidade do Porto, and the Biblioteca Municipal de Elvas. Jisc cites a single copy of the reprint edition only, at British Library.