CANTARES - VERSOS. Lyrical verses by ANTONIO BOTTO; Musical Scores by Nicolau d'Albuquerque Ferreira; Illustrations by Antonio Carneiro.

LISBON: Typographia do Annuario Commercial, 1919. First edition. Text in Portuguese.

SIGNED and INSCRIBED by ANTONIO BOTTO on the front free endpaper: "Ao exmo Amigo Correia / agradecendo as suas / belas atenção / oferece / Antonio Botto". [To my dear friend Correia, thanking him for his kind attention, Antonio Botto.]

Hardcovers, no dustjacket as issued, 4to. 9.5x11 inches (24x29 cm), 60 unnumbered pages. Illustrated with reproductions of paintings by Carneiro, each with a tissue guard protector, and with music by Ferreira.

GOOD condition: The covers have some light toning and soiling, the spine covering is peeling and worn, one leather tie is lacking, else the covers are solid and doing their job well. Internally, the pages are just lightly toned at the edges (except the front free endpaper which is more substantially toned), otherwise tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked. A nice, solid, presentable copy.

SCARCE, especially so with the SIGNATURE & INSCRIPTION of ANTONIO BOTTO.

About ANTONIO BOTTO (from Wikipedia):

******António Botto, b.1897 d.1959, was a Portuguese aesthete and lyricist poet. Botto grew up in a neighbourhood of old shabby houses, the ambiance was one of poverty and promiscuousness. The dirty streets were crowded with workers, housewives shopping, vendors, beggars, tramps, kids playing, pimps, prostitutes and sailors. All of this deeply influenced Botto's work.

His first book of poems Trovas was published in 1917. It was followed by Cantigas de Saudade (1918), Cantares (1919) and Canções do Sul (1920). His book Canções (1921) caused a scandal and gave Botto a notoriety that has lasted until this day. In Canções Botto wrote about same-sex love in a very nonchalant and romantic way; and it featured a photograph of Botto in a languid, partially nude pose.

The journal Comtemporânea praised the author's courage and sincerity for shamelessly singing about homosexual love as a true aesthete. Conservatives branded the book "Sodom's literature" and had it banned. A year later the ban was lifted and Botto became somewhat of a mythical figure.

Botto's mythomania seems to have been a lifelong trait. He talked about unlikely friendships with people like James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Vaslav Nijinsky, Federico García Lorca or André Gide. On the other hand, he never alluded to his modest background or ever talked about his parents or brothers.

He was a regular visitor of Lisbon's popular bohemian quarters and the docks, enjoying the company of sailors, a frequent image in his poems. In spite of a homosexual fame, he had a lifelong and fully devoted common law wife, Carminda da Conceição Silva Rodrigues, a widow, nine years his elder. "Marriage suits every handsome and decadent man", he once wrote.****** (Read more about Botto on his Wikipedia page and elsewhere on the Internet.)