Gómez Correa, Enrique.

[LATIN AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE – CHILEAN SURREALISM] Cataclismo en los ojos [Cataclysm in the eyes].

Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Mandragora, 1942. Octavo (20 × 14 cm). Original printed red glazed paper-covered card wrappers; 42 [recte 46], [2] pp. Signed and inscribed by the author. Wrappers lightly sun-tanned; else about very good. Item #P5338

First edition of the important Chilean’s book of poems, who has been called the “most surrealist” of the Chilean surrealist poets. Gómez Correa founded the Chilean group “La Mandrágora” with Braulio Arenas, Teófilo Cid, and other young poets in 1938. From 1949 to 1951 he lived in Paris, where he befriended Breton and the painters Jacques Hérold and René Magritte. His work was widely translated and he was at one time predicted as a future Nobel Prize laureate. The title page with a quote by Breton in French: “A flanc d’abíme, construit en pierre philosophale s’ouvre le château étoilé.”

The "Mandragora" group was strongly influenced by the French surrealists. This relationship is also evident in the name. Mandrake (Mandragora) is a plant steeped in legend, not least in Chile. This is not only due to the hallucinogenic effect it is said to have. This nightshade plant is said to induce psychedelic states of intoxication with intense color and image perceptions, fantasy worlds between breathtaking beauty and infinite horror. In addition to this connotation typical of surrealism, the mandragora plant was associated with numerous miracles in which the plant took on the form of the crucified or the Mother of God, for example. (Cf. Ulrich Pfisterer, Mandragora: Plants as Artists, Heidelberg 2024)

One of 300 numbered copies, this copy no. 132, signed and inscribed by the author to the colophon.

As of July 2024, OCLC lists seven copies in North America.