Signed first edition of the important Chilean poet's third book of poems, inscribed by the author on the front free endpage to the Peruvian poet and writer José Galvez Barrenechea. She has penned: “A José Gálvez, maestro íntimo y popular de sus amigos, de los peruanos y de sus amigos [...] Gabriela Mistral." 286 pp. Hardcover, faux bois paper rudely applied over faded gray cloth, splitting to front joint, spine quite worn and faded, scattered foxing throughout.

The Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist was the first Latin American (and, so far, the only Latin American woman) to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945. Tala ("Harvesting"), her third book of poems, is probably her most important book. In solidarity with the Spanish Republic she donated her author's rights for the book to the Spanish children displaced and orphaned by the war. In Tala Mistral includes the poems inspired by the death of her mother, together with a variety of other compositions that do not linger in sadness but sing of the beauty of the world and deal with the hopes and dreams of the human heart. These poems are divided into three sections: "Materias" (Matter), comprising verse about bread, salt, water, air; "Tierra de Chile" (Land of Chile), and "America." Particularly important in this last group are two American hymns: "Sol del trópico" (Tropical Sun) and "Cordillera" (Mountain Range). These poems exemplify Mistral's interest in awakening in her contemporaries a love for the essences of their American identity.