César Vallejo
Encyclopedia
César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peru
vian 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 in any language. Thomas Merton
called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante". Always a step ahead of literary currents, each of his books was distinct from the others, and, in its 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. The late British poet, critic and biographer Martin Seymour-Smith
, a leading authority on world literature, called Vallejo "...the greatest twentieth-century poet in any language."
. He studied literature at University of Trujillo in Trujillo
. Lack of funds forced him to withdraw from his studies for a time and work at a sugar plantation, the Roma Hacienda, where he witnessed the exploitation of agrarian workers firsthand, an experience which would have an important impact on his politics and aesthetics. Vallejo received a BA in Spanish literature in 1915, the same year that he became acquainted with the bohemia
of Trujillo, in particular with APRA
co-founders Antenor Orrego
and Victor Raul Haya de la Torre
.
In 1916 Vallejo moved to Lima
, where he studied at National University of San Marcos
, read, worked as a schoolteacher, and came into contact with artistic and political avant-garde
. While in Lima he also produced his first poetry collection, Los Heraldos Negros. Despite its publication year of 1918, the book was actually published a year later. (see below)It is also heavily infuenced by the poetry and other writings of fellow Peruvian Manuel González Prada
, who had only recently died. Vallejo then suffered a number of calamities over the next few years: he refused to marry a woman with whom he had an affair and thus lost his teaching post, his mother died in 1920, and he went to prison for 105 days for alleged intellectual instigation of a partisan skirmish in his hometown, Santiago de Chuco. Nonetheless, 1922 he published his second volume of poetry, Trilce, which is still considered one of the most radically avant-garde poetry collections in the Spanish language. After publishing the short story collections Escalas melografiadas and Fabla salvaje in 1923, Vallejo emigrated to Europe under the threat of further incarceration and remained there until his death in Paris in 1938.
His European years found him living in dire poverty in Paris, with the exception of three trips to the USSR and a couple of years in the early 1930s spent in exile in Spain. In 1926 he met his first French mistress, Henriette Maisse, with whom he lived until a breakup in October 1928. In 1927 he had formally met Georgette Marie Philippart Travers (see Georgette Vallejo
), whom he had seen when she was 17 and lived in his neighborhood. This was also the year of his first trip to Russia. They eventually became lovers, much to the dismay of her mother. Georgette traveled with him to Spain the end of December 1930 and returned in January 1932. In 1930 the Spanish government awarded him a modest author's grant. When he returned to Paris, he also went on to Russia to participate in the International Congress of Writers' Solidarity towards the Soviet Regime (not to be confused with the First Congress of Soviet Writers of 1934, which solidified the parameters for Socialist Realism
). Back in París Vallejo married Georgette Philippart in 1934. His wife remained a controversial figure concerning the publication of Vallejo's works for many years after his death.
A regular cultural contributor to weeklies in Lima, Vallejo also sent sporadic articles to newspapers and magazines in other parts of Latin America, Spain, Italy, and France. His USSR trips also led to two books of reportage he was able to get published early in the 30s. Vallejo also prepared several theatrical works never performed during his lifetime, among them his drama Colacho Hermanos, o Los Presidentes de America, which shares content with another work he completed during this period, the socialist-realist novel El Tungsteno. He even wrote a children's book, Paco Yunque
. After becoming emotionally and intellectually involved in the Spanish Civil War, Vallejo had a final burst of poetic activity in the late 30s, producing two books of poetry (both published posthumously) whose titles and proper organization remain a matter of debate: they were published as Poemas humanos and España, aparta de mí este cáliz. He died on April 15, 1938, of an unknown illness now thought to have been a form of malaria
, an event fictionalized in Roberto Bolaño
's novel Monsieur Pain
. Originally buried in the proletarian Montrouge
cemetery, Vallejo's remains are now in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.
, in the 1993 edited volume Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems, describes it as "a staggering book, sensual, prophetic, affectionate, wild," and as "the greatest single collection of poems I have ever read." The title is likely suggestive of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, as the book itself touches on topics of religiosity, life and death.
. Like James Joyce
's Finnegans Wake
, Trilce borders on inaccessibility.
as a living representation of a struggle between good and evil forces, where he advocates for the triumph of mankind symbolised in the salvation of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–39)
that was being attacked by fascist allied forces led by General Franco
. In 1994 Harold Bloom
included España, Aparta de Mí Este Cáliz in his list of influential works of the Western Canon
.
Mampar is the subject of a critical letter from producer Louis Jouvet
which says, in summary, "Interesting, but terminally flawed". The text itself is lost, assumed to have been destroyed by Vallejo.
Lock-Out (1930, written in French; a Spanish translation by Vallejo himself is lost) deals with a labour struggle in a foundry.
Entre las dos orillas corre el río (1930s) was the product of a long and difficult birth. Titles of earlier versions include Varona Polianova, Moscú contra Moscú, El juego del amor, del odio y de la muerte and several variations on this latter title.
Colacho hermanos o Presidentes de América (1934). Satire displaying Peruvian democracy as a bourgeois farce under pressure from international companies and diplomacy.
La piedra cansada (1937).
Towards the kingdom of the Sciris (1928) is a historic short story dealing with the Incan theme.
Fabla Salvaje (1924) Literally 'Wild Language', is a short novel which follows the insanity of a character who lives in the Andes.
The children's book, "Paco Yunque
", was rejected in Spain in 1930 for being too violent for children. But since it was published in Peru in the 1960s, it became mandatory reading in the elementary schools in Peru.
.
Rusia ante el II Plan Quinquenal is a second work of Vallejo's chronicles of his travels in Soviet Russia, focusing on Joseph Stalin
's second Five Year Plan. The book, originally written in 1931, was not published until 1965.
. With a Foreword by Mario Vargas Llosa
, an Introduction by Efrain Kristal, and a Chronology by Stephen M. Hart.) University of California Press
. ISBN 0-520-24552-0 (shortlisted for the 2008 International Griffin Poetry Prize
)
The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo (Translators: Clayton Eshleman and José Rubia Barcia), University of California Press ISBN 0-520-04099-6
Trilce (Translators: Michael Smith, Valentino Gianuzzi). Shearsman Books. ISBN 0-907562-72-8
The Complete Later Poems 1923–1938 (Translators: Michael Smith, Valentino Gianuzzi). Shearsman Books. ISBN 0-907562-73-6
The Black Heralds (Translator: Rebecca Seiferle) Copper Canyon Press
ISBN 1-55659-199-3
Trilce (Translator: Rebecca Seiferle) Sheep Meadow Press. ISBN 1-878818-12-0
The Black Heralds (Translator: Barry Fogden) Allardyce, Barnett Publishers. ISBN 0-907954-23-5
The Black Heralds (Translators: Richard Schaaf and Kathleen Ross) Latin American Literary Review Press. ISBN 0-935480-43-9
Trilce (Translator: Dave Smith) Mishima Books. ISBN 0-670-73060-2
Autopsy on Surrealism (Translator: Richard Schaaf) Curbstone Press. ISBN 0-915306-32-8
Cesar Vallejo (Translators: Gordon Brotherstone and Edward Dorn) Penguin. ISBN 0-14-042189-0
Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems (Translators: Robert Bly and James Wright) Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-6489-0
I'm going to speak of hope (Translator: Peter Boyle) Peruvian Consulate Publication.
Cesar Vallejo: An Anthology of His Poetry (Introduction by James Higgins) The Commonwealth and International Library. ISBN 0-08-015761-0
Selected Poems of Cesar Vallejo (Translator: H. R. Hays) Sachem Press. ISBN 0-937584-01-0
Poemas Humanos, Human Poems, by César Vallejo, a bilingual edition translated by Clayton Eshleman. Copyright 1968. Grove Press, 1969, xxv + 326 pp. ISBN 84-376-0731-0.
The Mayakovsky Case (Translator: Richard Schaaf) Curbstone Press. ISBN 0-915306-31-X
Tungsten (Translator: Robert Mezey) Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-0226-X
Songs of Home (Translators: Kathleen Ross and Richard Schaaf) Ziesing Brothers Book Emporium. ISBN 0-917488-05-9
Spain Take This Cup from Me (Translator: Mary Sarko ) Azul. ISBN 1-885214-03-0
Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me (Translator: Alvaro Cardona-Hine) Azul. ISBN 1-885214-42-1
Trilce (Selections from the 1922 Edition), Vols. 38/39 and 40/41 (Translator: Prospero Saiz) Abraxas Press. ISBN 0-932868-07-X
Spanish:
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian 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 in any language. Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion...
called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante". Always a step ahead of literary currents, each of his books was distinct from the others, and, in its own sense, revolutionary. Clayton Eshleman
Clayton Eshleman
Clayton Eshleman is an American poet, translator, and editor.-Life:Eshleman has been translating since the early 1960s. He is the recipient of the National Book Award in 1979 for his co-translation of César Vallejo's Complete Posthumous Poetry...
and José Rubia Barcia
José Rubia Barcia
José Rubia Barcia was born in El Ferrol , where a cultural center dedicated to him now houses his library and a collection of his papers. He studied Arabic and Hispano-Arabic literature at the University of Granada...
's translation of The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo won the National Book Award for translation in 1979. The late British poet, critic and biographer Martin Seymour-Smith
Martin Seymour-Smith
Martin Roger Seymour-Smith was a British poet, literary critic, biographer and astrologer.Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Oxford University where he was editor of Isis...
, a leading authority on world literature, called Vallejo "...the greatest twentieth-century poet in any language."
Life
César Vallejo was born the youngest of eleven children in Santiago de Chuco, a remote village in the peruvian AndesAndes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
. He studied literature at University of Trujillo in Trujillo
Trujillo, Peru
Trujillo, in northwestern Peru, is the capital of the La Libertad Region, and the third largest city in Peru. The urban area has 811,979 inhabitants and is an economic hub in northern Peru...
. Lack of funds forced him to withdraw from his studies for a time and work at a sugar plantation, the Roma Hacienda, where he witnessed the exploitation of agrarian workers firsthand, an experience which would have an important impact on his politics and aesthetics. Vallejo received a BA in Spanish literature in 1915, the same year that he became acquainted with the bohemia
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
of Trujillo, in particular with APRA
American Popular Revolutionary Alliance
The Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana is a centre-left Peruvian political party.At the legislative elections held on 9 April 2006, the party won 22.6% of the popular vote and 36 out of 120 seats in the Congress of the Republic...
co-founders Antenor Orrego
Antenor Orrego
Antenor Orrego Espinoza was a Peruvian writer and political philosopher of Basque ancestry. He was a member of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance...
and Victor Raul Haya de la Torre
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre was a Peruvian political leader who founded the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance political movement.-Life:Haya de la Torre was born in the northern Peruvian city of Trujillo...
.
In 1916 Vallejo moved to Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, where he studied at National University of San Marcos
National University of San Marcos
The National University of San Marcos is the most important and respected higher-education institution in Peru. Its main campus, the University City, is located in Lima...
, read, worked as a schoolteacher, and came into contact with artistic and political avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
. While in Lima he also produced his first poetry collection, Los Heraldos Negros. Despite its publication year of 1918, the book was actually published a year later. (see below)It is also heavily infuenced by the poetry and other writings of fellow Peruvian Manuel González Prada
Manuel González Prada
Jose Manuel de los Reyes González de Prada y Ulloa was a Peruvian politician and anarchist, literary critic and director of the National Library of Peru...
, who had only recently died. Vallejo then suffered a number of calamities over the next few years: he refused to marry a woman with whom he had an affair and thus lost his teaching post, his mother died in 1920, and he went to prison for 105 days for alleged intellectual instigation of a partisan skirmish in his hometown, Santiago de Chuco. Nonetheless, 1922 he published his second volume of poetry, Trilce, which is still considered one of the most radically avant-garde poetry collections in the Spanish language. After publishing the short story collections Escalas melografiadas and Fabla salvaje in 1923, Vallejo emigrated to Europe under the threat of further incarceration and remained there until his death in Paris in 1938.
His European years found him living in dire poverty in Paris, with the exception of three trips to the USSR and a couple of years in the early 1930s spent in exile in Spain. In 1926 he met his first French mistress, Henriette Maisse, with whom he lived until a breakup in October 1928. In 1927 he had formally met Georgette Marie Philippart Travers (see Georgette Vallejo
Georgette Vallejo
Georgette Marie Philippart Travers , French writer and poet. She was the wife of the Peruvian poet César Vallejo of international fame, considered by Mario Benedetti to be a "human paradigm", while the American poet-monk Thomas Merton points out that "the project for the translation of his poetry...
), whom he had seen when she was 17 and lived in his neighborhood. This was also the year of his first trip to Russia. They eventually became lovers, much to the dismay of her mother. Georgette traveled with him to Spain the end of December 1930 and returned in January 1932. In 1930 the Spanish government awarded him a modest author's grant. When he returned to Paris, he also went on to Russia to participate in the International Congress of Writers' Solidarity towards the Soviet Regime (not to be confused with the First Congress of Soviet Writers of 1934, which solidified the parameters for Socialist Realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
). Back in París Vallejo married Georgette Philippart in 1934. His wife remained a controversial figure concerning the publication of Vallejo's works for many years after his death.
A regular cultural contributor to weeklies in Lima, Vallejo also sent sporadic articles to newspapers and magazines in other parts of Latin America, Spain, Italy, and France. His USSR trips also led to two books of reportage he was able to get published early in the 30s. Vallejo also prepared several theatrical works never performed during his lifetime, among them his drama Colacho Hermanos, o Los Presidentes de America, which shares content with another work he completed during this period, the socialist-realist novel El Tungsteno. He even wrote a children's book, Paco Yunque
Paco Yunque
Paco Yunque is a children's story originally written in Spanish by Peruvian poet César Vallejo and first published in 1951.-History:...
. After becoming emotionally and intellectually involved in the Spanish Civil War, Vallejo had a final burst of poetic activity in the late 30s, producing two books of poetry (both published posthumously) whose titles and proper organization remain a matter of debate: they were published as Poemas humanos and España, aparta de mí este cáliz. He died on April 15, 1938, of an unknown illness now thought to have been a form of malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
, an event fictionalized in Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño Ávalos was a Chilean novelist and poet. In 1999 he won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel Los detectives salvajes , and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his novel 2666, which was described by board member Marcela Valdes...
's novel Monsieur Pain
Monsieur Pain
Monsieur Pain is a novel by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. A translation from the Spanish by Chris Andrews was published by New Directions in January 2010.-Summary:The novel is set in Paris and narrated by the Mesmerist Pierre Pain...
. Originally buried in the proletarian Montrouge
Montrouge
Montrouge is a commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the center of Paris, France. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe...
cemetery, Vallejo's remains are now in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.
Los Heraldos Negros (1919)
Los Heraldos Negros (The Black Messengers) was completed in 1918, but not published until 1919. Robert BlyRobert Bly
Robert Bly is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.-Life:Bly was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, to Jacob and Alice Bly, who were of Norwegian ancestry. Following graduation from high school in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving...
, in the 1993 edited volume Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems, describes it as "a staggering book, sensual, prophetic, affectionate, wild," and as "the greatest single collection of poems I have ever read." The title is likely suggestive of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, as the book itself touches on topics of religiosity, life and death.
Trilce (1922)
Trilce, published in 1922, anticipated much of the avant-garde movement that would develop in the 1920s and 30s. Vallejo's book takes language to a radical extreme, inventing words, stretching syntax, using automatic writing and other techniques now known as "surrealist" (though he did this before the Surrealist movement began). The book put Latin America at the center of the Avant-gardeAvant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
. Like James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake is a novel by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's...
, Trilce borders on inaccessibility.
España, Aparta de Mí Este Cáliz (1937)
In España, aparta de mí este cáliz (Spain, Take This Chalice from Me), Vallejo takes the Spanish Civil War (1936–39)Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
as a living representation of a struggle between good and evil forces, where he advocates for the triumph of mankind symbolised in the salvation of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–39)
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
that was being attacked by fascist allied forces led by General Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
. In 1994 Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
included España, Aparta de Mí Este Cáliz in his list of influential works of the Western Canon
Western canon
The term Western canon denotes a canon of books and, more broadly, music and art that have been the most important and influential in shaping Western culture. As such, it includes the "greatest works of artistic merit." Such a canon is important to the theory of educational perennialism and the...
.
Poemas Humanos (1939)
Poemas Humanos (Human Poems), published by the poet's wife after his death, is a leftist work of political, socially oriented poetry. Although a few of these poems appeared in magazines during Vallejo's lifetime, almost all of them were published posthumously. The poet never specified a title for this grouping, but while reading his body of work his widow found that he had planned a book of "human poems", which is why his editors decided on this title. Of this the poet's last written work, it was said"... after a long silence, as if the presentiment of death might have urged him, he wrote in a few months the Poemas humanos."Plays
Vallejo wrote five plays, none of which were staged or published during his lifetime.Mampar is the subject of a critical letter from producer Louis Jouvet
Louis Jouvet
Louis Jouvet was a renowned French actor, director, and theatre director.- Life :Overcoming speech impediments and sometimes paralyzing stage fright as a young man, Jouvet's first important association was with Jacques Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, beginning in 1913...
which says, in summary, "Interesting, but terminally flawed". The text itself is lost, assumed to have been destroyed by Vallejo.
Lock-Out (1930, written in French; a Spanish translation by Vallejo himself is lost) deals with a labour struggle in a foundry.
Entre las dos orillas corre el río (1930s) was the product of a long and difficult birth. Titles of earlier versions include Varona Polianova, Moscú contra Moscú, El juego del amor, del odio y de la muerte and several variations on this latter title.
Colacho hermanos o Presidentes de América (1934). Satire displaying Peruvian democracy as a bourgeois farce under pressure from international companies and diplomacy.
La piedra cansada (1937).
Novels
El tungsteno (1931). A social realist novel depicting the oppression of native Peruvian miners and their communities by a foreign-owned tungsten mine.Towards the kingdom of the Sciris (1928) is a historic short story dealing with the Incan theme.
Fabla Salvaje (1924) Literally 'Wild Language', is a short novel which follows the insanity of a character who lives in the Andes.
The children's book, "Paco Yunque
Paco Yunque
Paco Yunque is a children's story originally written in Spanish by Peruvian poet César Vallejo and first published in 1951.-History:...
", was rejected in Spain in 1930 for being too violent for children. But since it was published in Peru in the 1960s, it became mandatory reading in the elementary schools in Peru.
Non-fiction
Rusia en 1931, reflexiones al pie del Kremlin (Russia in 1931, reflections on foot of the Kremlin), first published in 1931, is a journalistic work describing Vallejo's impressions of the new socialist society that he saw being built in Soviet RussiaSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
Rusia ante el II Plan Quinquenal is a second work of Vallejo's chronicles of his travels in Soviet Russia, focusing on Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's second Five Year Plan. The book, originally written in 1931, was not published until 1965.
Selected works available in English
The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo (Edited and Translated by Clayton EshlemanClayton Eshleman
Clayton Eshleman is an American poet, translator, and editor.-Life:Eshleman has been translating since the early 1960s. He is the recipient of the National Book Award in 1979 for his co-translation of César Vallejo's Complete Posthumous Poetry...
. With a Foreword by Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
, an Introduction by Efrain Kristal, and a Chronology by Stephen M. Hart.) University of California Press
University of California Press
University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
. ISBN 0-520-24552-0 (shortlisted for the 2008 International Griffin Poetry Prize
Griffin Poetry Prize
The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's most generous poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. The awards go to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language....
)
The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo (Translators: Clayton Eshleman and José Rubia Barcia), University of California Press ISBN 0-520-04099-6
Trilce (Translators: Michael Smith, Valentino Gianuzzi). Shearsman Books. ISBN 0-907562-72-8
The Complete Later Poems 1923–1938 (Translators: Michael Smith, Valentino Gianuzzi). Shearsman Books. ISBN 0-907562-73-6
The Black Heralds (Translator: Rebecca Seiferle) Copper Canyon Press
Copper Canyon Press
Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...
ISBN 1-55659-199-3
Trilce (Translator: Rebecca Seiferle) Sheep Meadow Press. ISBN 1-878818-12-0
The Black Heralds (Translator: Barry Fogden) Allardyce, Barnett Publishers. ISBN 0-907954-23-5
The Black Heralds (Translators: Richard Schaaf and Kathleen Ross) Latin American Literary Review Press. ISBN 0-935480-43-9
Trilce (Translator: Dave Smith) Mishima Books. ISBN 0-670-73060-2
Autopsy on Surrealism (Translator: Richard Schaaf) Curbstone Press. ISBN 0-915306-32-8
Cesar Vallejo (Translators: Gordon Brotherstone and Edward Dorn) Penguin. ISBN 0-14-042189-0
Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems (Translators: Robert Bly and James Wright) Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-6489-0
I'm going to speak of hope (Translator: Peter Boyle) Peruvian Consulate Publication.
Cesar Vallejo: An Anthology of His Poetry (Introduction by James Higgins) The Commonwealth and International Library. ISBN 0-08-015761-0
Selected Poems of Cesar Vallejo (Translator: H. R. Hays) Sachem Press. ISBN 0-937584-01-0
Poemas Humanos, Human Poems, by César Vallejo, a bilingual edition translated by Clayton Eshleman. Copyright 1968. Grove Press, 1969, xxv + 326 pp. ISBN 84-376-0731-0.
The Mayakovsky Case (Translator: Richard Schaaf) Curbstone Press. ISBN 0-915306-31-X
Tungsten (Translator: Robert Mezey) Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-0226-X
Songs of Home (Translators: Kathleen Ross and Richard Schaaf) Ziesing Brothers Book Emporium. ISBN 0-917488-05-9
Spain Take This Cup from Me (Translator: Mary Sarko ) Azul. ISBN 1-885214-03-0
Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me (Translator: Alvaro Cardona-Hine) Azul. ISBN 1-885214-42-1
Trilce (Selections from the 1922 Edition), Vols. 38/39 and 40/41 (Translator: Prospero Saiz) Abraxas Press. ISBN 0-932868-07-X
Further reading
English:- César Vallejo: A Critical Bibliography of Research, Stephen M Hart, 2002
- César Vallejo: The Dialectics of Poetry and Silence, Jean Franco, 1976
- The Catastrophe of Modernity: Tragedy and the Nation in Latin American Literature, Patrick Dove, 2004
- The Poem on the Edge of the Word: the Limits of Language and the Uses of Silence, D.C. Niebylski, 1993
- Vallejo, Xavier Abril, 1958
- The Poetry and Poetics of Cesar Vallejo: the Fourth Angle of the Circle, Adam Sharman, 1997
- Wounded Fiction: Modern Poetry and Deconstruction, Joseph Adamson, 1988
- Homage to Vallejo, Christopher Buckley, 2006
- Trilce I: a Second Look, George Gordon Wing, 1972
- Neruda and Vallejo in Contemporary United States Poetry, Mark Jonathan Cramer, 1976
- “Vallejo on Language and Politics,” Letras hispanas: Revista de literatura y cultura, Rolando Pérez, 2008.
- http://letrashispanas.unlv.edu/vol5iss2/perez.htm; http://letrashispanas.unlv.edu/vol5iss2/perez.pdf
- “César Vallejo’s Ars Poética of Nonsense: A Deleuzean Reading of Trilce.” Dissidences: Hispanic Journal of Theory and Criticism, Rolando Pérez, 2008. www.dissidences/4PerezVallejo.html
Spanish:
- César Vallejo, el poeta y el hombre / Ricardo Silva-Santisteban. Lima, 2010
- Recordando a Vallejo: La Bohemia de Trujillo / Luis Alva Castro, Luis. www.Tribuna-us.com
- Ensayos vallejianos / William Rowe., 2006
- César Vallejo al pie del orbe / Iván Rodríguez Chávez., 2006
- Alcance filosófico en Cesar Vallejo y Antonio Machado / Antonio Belaunde Moreyra., 2005
- César Vallejo : estudios de poética / Jesús Humberto Florencia., 2005
- Poéticas y utopías en la poesía de César Vallejo / Pedro José Granados., 2004
- César Vallejo : muerte y resurrección / Max Silva Tuesta., 2003
- César Vallejo, arquitecto de la palabra, caminante de la gloria / Idelfonso Niño Albán., 2003
- Algunos críticos de Vallejo y otros ensayos vallejianos / César Augusto Angeles Caballero., 2002
- César Vallejo en la crítica internacional / Wilfredo Kapsoli Escudero., 2001
- César Vallejo y el surrealismo / Juan Larrea., 2001
- César Vallejo y la muerte de Dios / Rafael Gutiérrez Girardot., 2000
- César Vallejo / Víctor de Lama., 2000
- Recopilación de textos sobre César Vallejo / Raúl Hernández Novás., 2000
- Mi encuentro con Vallejo; Prólogo de Luis Alva Castro / Antenor Orrego. Bogotá: Tercer Mundo Editores, 1989. ISBN 938-601-224-7
- Antenor Orrego y sus dos prólogos a Trilce / Manuel Ibáñez Rosazza. Trilce Editores: Trujillo, 1995
- César Vallejo, Sus mejores obras. Ediciones Perú: Lima, 1962
- César Vallejo, vida y obra / Luis Monguió. Editora Perú Nuevo: Lima, 1952
- César Vallejo (1892-1938); Vida y obra, Revista Hispánica Moderna, New York, 1950.
Miscellany
- The American dramatist, actor, and short story writer Sam ShepardSam ShepardSam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
writes in Cruising Paradise that Cesar Vallejo is his favorite poet. Shepard's previous book of stories and poems, Motel Chronicles, begins with an inscription from a Vallejo poem, "...never did far away charge so close."
- American poet Joe BoltonJoe Bolton (poet)Joe Bolton was an American poet who took his own life.He was born in Cadiz, Kentucky. He completed a Masters degree at the University of Florida in 1988. In 1990, after completing his M.F.A., he took his own life...
adapted several sections of Trilce in his book Days of Summer Gone (Galileo Press, 1990).
- American poet Charles BukowskiCharles BukowskiHenry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
wrote a poem about vallejo in his book "what matters most is how well you walk through the fire"
- The Puerto Rican poet and novelist Giannina BraschiGiannina BraschiGiannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States...
pays homage to Cesar Vallejo's "Los Heraldos Negros" in the poetry trilogy "Empire of Dreams" (Yale, 1994).
- The Swedish movie Songs from the Second FloorSongs from the Second FloorSongs from the Second Floor is a 2000 Swedish film written and directed by Roy Andersson. It presents a series of disconnected vignettes that together interrogate aspects of modern life. The film uses many quotations from the work of the Peruvian poet César Vallejo as a recurring motif...
(2000) quotes Cesar Vallejo's work as a recurring motif.
- "César Vallejo – Xxviii", Folkways Records, ASIN B000UXU4ZI, January 1, 1960
External links
- Human Potential: The Life and Work of César Vallejo
- Information about Vallejo from the Academy of American Poets
- Griffin Poetry Prize biography, including audio and video clips of Guillermo Verdecchia reading Clayton Eshleman's translation of Vallejo's Guitar