Canto general
Signed presentation inscription: “À Mme Jeanne Leraz, el saludo de Pablo Neruda, 1950, Paris.”
Pablo Neruda’s major work, the Canto general is a vast poetic fresco devoted to the history, geography and peoples of Latin America.
Initially conceived around 1940 as a song dedicated to Chile alone, the project took on a continental scale following Neruda’s journey to Machu Picchu in 1943. His discovery of the Inca city inspired Alturas de Macchu Picchu, composed in 1945, which would become one of the fifteen parts of the collection.
From pre-Columbian civilizations to the Spanish conquest, from the struggles for independence to contemporary political upheavals, Neruda set out to restore the memory of an entire continent. The history of peoples and their struggles is answered by landscapes, rivers, mountains and forests, in a poetry that combines celebration of nature, epic breadth and political commitment. The final part, Yo soy (“I am”), takes the form of a poetic autobiography.
The collection was published in Mexico in 1950, while Neruda was living in exile after being forced to leave Chile. A monumental first edition, made possible by an international subscription, had been printed in 500 copies on Malinche paper, with endpapers illustrated by Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
A copy inscribed in Paris the very year the Canto general was published, at a time when Neruda was actively engaged in the international dissemination of his work.