408 - NERUDA (Pablo).

NERUDA (Pablo). Spain in My Heart: An Hymn to the Glory of the People at War. Translated by Louis Parot. (Collection of the International Association of Writers for the Defense of Culture, published under the literary direction of ARAGON.) Paris, Denoël, 1938. In-8, lemon-colored chagrin, smooth spine, embossed title, illustrated cover and spine preserved. First edition of the French translation of one of the great poetic works born of the Spanish Civil War. A precious copy (SP) from Jean Marcenac, bearing—twenty years after the events—a beautiful autograph dedication signed by Pablo Neruda in green ink: "1937–1957 for Juan Marcenac and for Dédé [followed by a heart] as if it were today […]" Written in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, following the assassination of Federico García Lorca and Neruda’s commitment to the Republican cause, *España en el corazón* was published in Spanish in 1937. Its first French translation, by Louis Parrot and with a preface by Aragon, was published in Paris the following year by Denoël. The dedication to Jean and Andrée (“Dédé”) Marcenac is particularly moving: inscribed in 1957, twenty years after the collection was written, it explicitly links this copy to 1937 “as if it were today.” Jean Marcenac was one of Neruda’s close friends, translators, and promoters in France.