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Large 8°, original illustrated wrappers. Full-page illustration by António Dacosta on verso of half title; another illustration by the same artist on the front cover. Some very slight foxing to covers. Light toning. Overall in very good condition. Author's signed and dated five-line presentation inscription on blank p. [3]: "Ao Dr. Tomás da Fonseca, // homenagem de muito // respeito e admiração de // Adolfo Casais Monteiro // Lx. 7/II/46". 38 pp., (1 l. colophon). *** FIRST EDITION. Dedicated to António Pedro, this poem consists of the author's hopes and aspirations for Europe, and for Portugal as a part of Europe, following the devastation and misery of the Second World War. An earlier, slightly different version of the poem had been aired on the BBC's Portuguese-language transmission of 23 May 1945.The colophon states that the edition consisted of 200 copies: 15 on papel Ingres PMF, numbered 1 through 15 and signed by the author; 95 on papel Offset S.S. Mate, for subscribers, numbered 16 to 110, signed by the author; and 90 also on papel Offset S.S. Mate, numbered 111 to 200. It is further stated that there were a few extra copies, unnumbered, of which the present copy is one.One of the leading voices of the second generation of Portuguese Modernism, Adolfo Casais Monteiro (Porto 1908-São Paulo 1972) was a poet, literary critic and educator. Monteiro, Leonardo Coimbra and Sant'Ana Dionísio formed the editorial board of Águia in the late 1920s. He was an early and frequent contributor to the review Presença, and beginning with number 33, he joined José Régio and João Gaspar Simões in its direction. Monteiro was actively opposed to the Salazar regime, and was forced into exile in 1954. He spent the rest of his life in Brazil. Monteiro, Luís de Montalvor, and João Gaspar Simões, were among the few who appreciated Fernando Pessoa during Pessoa's lifetime. Monteiro was influential in promoting Pessoa's reputation after Pessoa's death. Provenance: The poet, author of fiction, essayist, historiographer, journalist, teacher, and militant anti-clerical republican [João] Tomás da Fonseca (Mortágua, district of Viseu, 1877-Lisbon, 1968), a freemason, belonged to the Movimento de Unidade Democrática. He wrote well over 20 books on a wide variety of subjects, founded, directed, and contributed to a number of newspapers, magazines and reviews, and was one of the most important sources for republican propaganda in the campaign prior to the establishment of the Portuguese Republic in 1910. He served the first president of the Republic, Teófilo Braga, as hief of staff, and in 1916 was elected senator from the district of Viseu. For opposing the dictatorship of Sidónio Pais, Fonseca spent two months in prison in 1918, and he was imprisoned again in November 1928 for participating in the 20 July revolutionary movement. On several occasions his books were confiscated by the PIDE. In May 1947, he was sent to prison yet again for protesting conditions at the so-called concentration camp of Tarrafal, Cabo Verde. He was the father of the author Branquinho da Fonseca. See Cristina Mello in Biblos, II, 656-7; Dicionário cronológico de autores portugueses, III, 187-90.*** On Casais Monteiro see Fernando J.B. Martinho in Machado, ed., Dicionário de literatura portuguesa, pp. 322-3; Dicionário cronológico de autores portugueses, IV, 360-3; Eugénio Lisboa in Biblos, III, 891-4; and Saraiva and Lopes, História da literatura portuguesa (16th ed.), p. 1043, et passim. Seller Inventory # 41015
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