Autopsy on Surrealism (Art on the Line, 3)

by César Vallejo, James Scully (Editor), Richard Schaaf (Translator)

English, Spanish (translation)

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet. Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century. Always a step ahead of the literary currents, each of his books was distinct from the others and, in it's own sense, revolutionary. Clayton Eshleman and José Rubia Barcia's translation of "The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo" won the National Book Award for translation in 1979.

Reviews

[Donald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cesar Vallejo is one of my favorite poets. Reading his poems in the original Spanish is at the top of my list for why I should learn that language.

That said, Vallejo took an unfortunate turn towards Leninism at some point in his life, and this little book is one of the results of that turn. At times Vallejo is unbearable here, repeating the same quasi-religious Marxist mishmash again and again. There are phrases and paragraphs that are unintentionally funny or amazing, but the real value of this book is as a historical document.