My Uncle Jacinto by Andras Laszlo, 1958 first American edition.

Written by Andras Laszlo. Translated by Isabel Quigly. Illustrated by Eduardo Vicente. First American edition, 1958. (First published in 1956 in Barcelona.) Harcourt, Brace and Company. New York.

Front Flap

"They live in that eternally impoverished section of Madrid, which, in defiance of its proximity to the airport, has resisted progress over the years.

"Jacinto - weary, disillusioned, old before his time - was once a promising bullfighter. Sickness, wine, perhaps too much of both have long since shattered his career. Untutored except in the double-edged skill of cape and sword, unsupported except by stubborn pride and inborn dignity, Jacinto faces each day to care for his orphaned, seven-year-old nephew Pepote. Pepote, a delightful combination of childhood's enchantment and necessity's wisdom, is paradoxically the more worldly of the two. But neither is prepared for the letter, whose arrival promises a taste of glory - and threatens their very existence."

Andrés Laszlo Sr. (1910 - 1985), according to his son, Andres Jr, was "French by nationality, born Austro-Hungarian but remembered mainly as a Spanish writer – was agented by Jenny Aspinwall Bradley, and thus associated with writers such as Joyce, Camus, Hemingway, etc. Senior hung out with the existentialist crowd in Saint-Germain-des-Pres, was a keen observer, had a melancholic disposition, was one heck of a writer, and has been forgotten only because he has too many mother countries." Books include Paco Never Fails, Mother Unknown, and Doña Juana.

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Condition: Very Good/Good. Dust jacket: Moderately soiled, with dampstain on the back, near spine; wear along upper edge with small closed tear on the front and one on the back; chipped at head and tail of the spine; small remnant of an old label on front flap. Orange cloth cover boards: Lightly bumped at corners and head and tail of the spine. Shadows on front paste-down and fly leaf, possibly from a bookmark or other paper insert, else pages are clean, undamaged, and complete.