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8°, original printed wrappers. Title-page and following leaf printed in red and black. Uncut. In very good to fine condition. Author's ink manuscript 5-line signed presentation inscription on initial blank leaf recto to Albino Forjaz de Sampaio. 36 pp., (1 l., 1 blank l.). *** FIRST EDITION of this book of poems. Nicely printed on high quality paper.The poet, diplomat and university professor Eugénio de Castro (Eugénio de Castro e Almeida, 1869-1944) introduced Symbolism to Portugal; as a young diplomat in Paris he came into contact with the great French symbolist poets, becoming a friend of Jean Moréas and Henri de Régnier. His influence can be seen even on such established Portuguese writers as Guerra Junqueiro, and he undoubtedly paved the way for Camilo Pessanha and Mário Sá Carneiro. Castro's verse ("often so perfect, always so artificial," says Bell, Portuguese Literature p. 337) signaled the return to poetry of careful thought and planning, as opposed to the inspired improvisation of the Romanticists, and led to the cult of "art for art's sake" or "estheticism" that became prominent in Portugal ca. 1925.Provenance: Albino Maria Pereira Forjaz de Sampaio (1884-1949) was a member of the Academia das Sciências de Lisboa. He wrote and edited a large number of books; among the most noteworthy are the 4-volume História da literatura portuguesa ilustrada, and the catalogue of his collection of Portuguese theater: Subsídios para a História do Teatro Português. Teatro de Cordel (Catálogo da Colecção do autor), published by the Academy of Sciences in 1922. His Palavras Cinicas was perhaps the greatest bestseller in twentieth-century Portugal, with 46 editions by the time of his death. A passionate bibliophile, there is a catalogue of the auction sale of his library, Catálogo da importante e valiosa biblioteca do ilustre escritor . Albino Forjaz de Sampaio . a venda em leilão . 11 de junho de 1945 na Liquidadora Fuertes . sob a direcção de Arnaldo Henriques de Oliveira. For Forjaz de Sampaio, see Maria Amélia Gomes in Machado, ed., Dicionário de literatura portuguesa, p. 432; António Leitão in Biblos, IV, 1076-7; Dicionário cronológico de autores portugueses, III, 310-1. *** Fonseca, Aditamentos p. 124. On Eugénio de Castro, see also Saraiva & Lopes, História da literatura portuguesa (17th ed., 2001), pp. 479, 669, 914, 975-6, 986 and 998; Grande enciclopedia VI, 235-7; Etalvina Santos in Machado, ed., Dicionário de literatura portuguesa, pp. 119-21; Fernando Guimarães in Biblos, I, 1074-6; and Dicionário cronológico de autores portugueses, III, 85-7.
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