Fox, Hugh

Guernica Cycle: The Year Franco Died

Cherry Valley, NY: Cherry Valley Editions, 1986. First Printing. Softcover. "When, in the spring of 1981, five years after I'd written them, I started to try to edit down my original Spanish journals from over a thousand pages to less than a hundred, I found Der Herr Professor in me creating a purely political literary book, selectively discarding anything but the lightning flicker political backdrop that was omnipresent in Spain the year Franco died. Fox, the journalist, at age 43 and in Spain, was a daredevilling, swashbuckling, defiant apostate, Fox, the professor, in the Year of The Budget Terror at moribund MSU (Michigan State University), was a varicosed "mental" chickenshit thinking more about presenting an organizationally correct image (eye on a fellowship to Spain to continue work on the Spanish novel) than revealing the real human/humane essence of the journals. So, the backbone of the book reflects the sanity of a handful of editors who abstracted THE HUMAN out of the journals so that you come away with a picture of Fox and Family in agony in Spain instead of merely The Professor viewing the year of Franco's death with geopolitical dispassion." (from Fox's Introduction). Charles and Pamela Plymell's Cherry Valley Editions published widely and fearlessly during the 1970s and 1980s, their press unapologetically churning out only what they themselves were interested in--only what their expansive, probing intellects set alight on. In 1986 this took the form of Hugh Fox's "Guernica Cycle: The Year Franco Died," in which Fox presents the best of his journals recorded in Spain in 1975-76 after brutal dictator Francisco Franco's death. Fox writes authentically and honestly, and these journals represent a ground-floor look at a geopolitical crisis of historic proportions. [ISBN: 0-916156-61-3]. Book in very fine condition, virtually as issued with only the slightest shelf-wear to top fine-edge of back cover. Very Fine. [Item #4392]

Price: $35.00