The Crafty Farmer

The Dolphin Bookshop Editions. London: The Dolphin Bookshop Editions (1938) Large 8vo., 31 pp; hardback in yellow paper covered boards, with the rare cellophane dustwrapper with a dolphin printed on the front panel, along with a sailing boat in the distance, price on inside flap of cellophane wrapper displaying 6s. net; the jacket has a tear to the bottom right of the front panel and two scuff marks on either flap where the wrapper has previously been glued to the inside board; book is near fine and much nicer than is usually found, some browning to the first couple of pages, otherwise; overall excellent. There are five full page drawings by Gregorio Prieto, including some fairly explicit including of a donkey trumping coins out of its behind and a bizarre scene of a man trying to resuscitate his dead wife by blowing a horn up her skirt. Prieto was considered a member of the 'generation of 27' - an influential group of spanish poets and artists that had a shared desire to work with avant-garde forms in art and literature. Their movement was solidified when they collectively met in Seville in 1927 to pay homage to baroque poet Luis de Gongora. The groups aims were to bridge the gap between popular culture, folklore and European avant garde ideas. The Crafty Farmer it has been suggested was first composed, at least in Spanish in around 1530, and it would reappear in chap book form in the early 1800s, and then reprinted again in 1907, before being beautifully reproduced by the Dolphin Bookshop. The folk tale tells of a farmer that purports to own several magical animals and items hence the death defying trumpet and coin dispensing donkey - the theme being about craft over credulity - as he attempts to push his 'inventions' onto unsuspecting merchants. A really lovely production and particularly so with the original cellophane jacket. . Near Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 1st Printing. 1938.