El Coronel no Tiene Quien le Escriba

Medellín: Aguirre, Editor, 1961. 1st ed. Wrappers. 13.8x20. Book seller's stamp on title page. The covers and spine are generally very clean; there is light foxing on the lower part of the back cover, and a stain on the inside of the folding flap, but this is not visible on the outside. Some toning of the paper of the body of the book - this is a copy that has been in Caracas for sixty years. Over all, near fine, and certainly the best copy we have seen, and one of the best that we have seen photographed. 'El Coronel' is the Colombian writer's second novel, and the one that would estanblish his fame as South America's finest author, although full recognition would come with the publication of 'Cien Años de Soledad in 1967. García Márquez wrote the book in Paris, although he rewrote it nine times before he was fully satisfied, finishing it in 1957. Two thousand copies of this first edition were printed. Of these some 500 (according to other sources 800) were distributed for sale, while the author took two huindred to sell or give away (this copy may be one of these, since it comes from the library of the Venezuelan poet Artajerjes Muñoz, who was an acqaintance of the novelist), while the rest were sold off to a dealer in cumin in the interior of Colombia, who took them apart and used the pages to wrap his produce. WorldCat records no copies in public libraries.