Los Fusilamientos [The Shootings]

Aurora, NY: Wells College Press, 2003 (but 2014). One of thirty copies, signed by the author, Ildefonso Manuel Gil, before his passing in 2003. Each lithograph titled, numbered, signed, and dated by the artist as well. No binding. Fine. Folio. (9)ff. A suite of four lithographs, plus an original drawing, by Roberts embrace the darkness and uncertainty of Gil's fierce anti-war poem and the Goya painting, "El 3 de mayo de 1808 en Madrid: los fusilamientos en la montaña del Príncipe Pío," on which the poem is based. Through his verses, Gil connects the Spanish resistance to Napoleon during the Peninsular War of 1808 to the Spanish Civil War and the horrible legacy of firing squads over a century later. Gil speaks personally; he refused to bend to Francoists during the Civil War, and was subsequently imprisoned and exiled. Translated by Miguel and Nancy Gil. Housed unbound in a clamshell box. Fine.