Book, Natural History by Pablo Neruda: the elegy that comes from afar[LS]

Companions in literature, in socialist commitment and in alcoholic and gastronomic excesses, Vinicius de Moraes and Pablo Neruda cultivated a long friendship, until the death of the Chilean poet, on September 23, 1973, twelve days after the military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende. Written in October of that year, "with a lot of love and a lot of pain", this Natural History by Pablo Neruda is a small tribute from Vinicius to his poet friend. In poems that range from the elegiac to the documentary and the comic, Vinicius recalls episodes from Neruda's life and the friendship between the two: his childhood in the city of Temuco, with "the eyes of an ironic sleepy whale"; Pablo's wives and the women the two shared; memories of trips, parties and dinners from the 40s and 60s, in the company of great figures of the time; and Pablo's political affinity and exile during the anti-communist regime of González Videla. Launched in 1974 by Edições Macunaíma, from Salvador, in a handcrafted edition of three hundred copies, this is the first commercial edition of the work, with the original woodcuts by Calasans Neto and a dust jacket that transforms into a beautiful poster. The book also features a presentation by Ferreira Gullar, exiled in Chile when Neruda died.