Márquez, Gabriel García | Typed letter, to his friend Carlos Aleman, referencing characters that would appear 17 years later - photo 1
Márquez, Gabriel García | Typed letter, to his friend Carlos Aleman, referencing characters that would appear 17 years later - photo 2

Márquez, Gabriel García | Typed letter, to his friend Carlos Aleman, referencing characters that would appear 17 years later

Lot 64
08.12.2023 12:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 5 080
AuctioneerSotheby´s
Event locationUSA, New York
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Archive
ID 1111099
Lot 64 | Márquez, Gabriel García | Typed letter, to his friend Carlos Aleman, referencing characters that would appear 17 years later
Estimate value
$ 4 000 – 6 000
Márquez, Gabriel García
Typed letter, to his friend Carlos Aleman, referencing characters that would appear 17 years later, ca. 1950

One page (275 x 210 mm). A single sheet of thin typewriter paper, with manuscript notation at top in pencil in Márquez's hand, signed in type ("Gabito"), recto with manuscript annotation in ink in another hand; old folds, minor creases, some toning and marginal spotting. Housed in folding chemise, and green morocco-backed slipcase.

A rich and complex letter, which reveals through its stream of consciousness style Márquez's creative process.

Márquez was working as a columnist for El Heraldo in the 1950s, when he wrote this letter to his close friend, Carlos Alemán. This wonderfully cramped piece of correspondence offers references to his own writing, and itself is reminiscent of Molly Bloom's final monologue in James Joyce's Ulysses (which García Márquez had read in Bogotá in 1947). Remarkably, the present letter also mentions Colonel Aureliano Buendía, the most complex character in Márquez's masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude, which was published in 1967. Márquez writes "aurelianobuendia te manda saludes" ("aurelianobuendia sends you greetings") before slipping into a longer narrative describing elements of the narrative.

The Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s was heavily influenced by European and North American Modernism, and the Cuban Vanguardia. The rambling nature of the present letter is a conscious act of imitation in many respects, but also sheds light on Márquez's own creative impulses and influences. While Joyce is certainly present, the content is thoroughly Márquez. Incredibly, this piece of correspondence evinces a step in Márquez's movement from Modernism to magical realism. Further underscoring the hold of his literary forbearers, Márquez makes a closing comments about Virginia Woolf to Alemán: "no te gusta virginia te vas al carajo" ("if you don't like virginia you're going to hell).

A playful and important letter, by a young Márquez.
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