BATISTA, Fulgencio. Cuba Betrayed (with author's compliments slip)
BATISTA, Fulgencio. Cuba Betrayed. New York, Washington & Hollywood: Vantage Press. 1962. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s black cloth lettered in gilt to the spine with blindstamped title to front board, in the dust jacket. With a card from the publisher loosely inserted with printed ‘with the compliments of the author’, and annotated in blue ink, ‘F. A. Batista, 129 North Halifax Avenue, Daytona Beach, Florida’. A very good copy, the black cloth a touch mottled, the binding tight and square, the textblock clean, lightly and evenly toned throughout from paper stock quality, with ink ownership signature to front endpaper and faint paperclip rust mark from which the compliments card sat. The dust jacket priced at $3.95 net to front flap, lightly rubbed along the corners and spine tips, some joints, with a few light stains.
An important autobiography from the Cuban populist about his two terms as dictator, and his exile. Born into a relatively poor family, Batista joined the Cuban army as a shorthand typist in the early 20s and only a decade later played a significant role in the Sergeant’s Revolt. His populist politics led him to presidency in 1940, and the years that followed were both his legacy and his downfall. Financed by American gangsters, Cuba—and Havana in particular—became a haven for American tourists, with world-leading casinos, unlimited nightlife, and a theme which Batista ran with, ‘beautiful women’, all the while lining his own pockets with Uncle Sam’s brass. The regime, of course, had been and continued to be replicated across Central and South America by way of the age-old and little-debated Monroe Doctrine. In 1950s Cuba, anti-American sentiment grew and though the economy seemed to be booming, the country had become a hedonistic inferno. Famously, one brazen lawyer, Fidel Castro, led Batista’s overthrow in 1959. By the time of publication of the book, Batista was living in exile, beachside on Daytona Beach, FL, his popularity an all-time low. That said, the CIA continued to support him over the continuously-left-leaning Castro, who was under intense pressure from the recently installed trade embargo, the support coming in honour of anti-Communism and less pro-Batista. The book is of course propaganda, twisting every negative fact of his own regime and his checkered history on a supposed Communist threat, on revolutionaries, on liberalism etc. etc. There is an admittedly quite stirring opening dedication to Cuba and its peoples, A curious tale; seldom does a dictator write upon his own tyranny, since seldom does he survive it. An uncommon book.
BATISTA, Fulgencio. Cuba Betrayed. New York, Washington & Hollywood: Vantage Press. 1962. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s black cloth lettered in gilt to the spine with blindstamped title to front board, in the dust jacket. With a card from the publisher loosely inserted with printed ‘with the compliments of the author’, and annotated in blue ink, ‘F. A. Batista, 129 North Halifax Avenue, Daytona Beach, Florida’. A very good copy, the black cloth a touch mottled, the binding tight and square, the textblock clean, lightly and evenly toned throughout from paper stock quality, with ink ownership signature to front endpaper and faint paperclip rust mark from which the compliments card sat. The dust jacket priced at $3.95 net to front flap, lightly rubbed along the corners and spine tips, some joints, with a few light stains.
An important autobiography from the Cuban populist about his two terms as dictator, and his exile. Born into a relatively poor family, Batista joined the Cuban army as a shorthand typist in the early 20s and only a decade later played a significant role in the Sergeant’s Revolt. His populist politics led him to presidency in 1940, and the years that followed were both his legacy and his downfall. Financed by American gangsters, Cuba—and Havana in particular—became a haven for American tourists, with world-leading casinos, unlimited nightlife, and a theme which Batista ran with, ‘beautiful women’, all the while lining his own pockets with Uncle Sam’s brass. The regime, of course, had been and continued to be replicated across Central and South America by way of the age-old and little-debated Monroe Doctrine. In 1950s Cuba, anti-American sentiment grew and though the economy seemed to be booming, the country had become a hedonistic inferno. Famously, one brazen lawyer, Fidel Castro, led Batista’s overthrow in 1959. By the time of publication of the book, Batista was living in exile, beachside on Daytona Beach, FL, his popularity an all-time low. That said, the CIA continued to support him over the continuously-left-leaning Castro, who was under intense pressure from the recently installed trade embargo, the support coming in honour of anti-Communism and less pro-Batista. The book is of course propaganda, twisting every negative fact of his own regime and his checkered history on a supposed Communist threat, on revolutionaries, on liberalism etc. etc. There is an admittedly quite stirring opening dedication to Cuba and its peoples, A curious tale; seldom does a dictator write upon his own tyranny, since seldom does he survive it. An uncommon book.
BATISTA, Fulgencio. Cuba Betrayed. New York, Washington & Hollywood: Vantage Press. 1962. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s black cloth lettered in gilt to the spine with blindstamped title to front board, in the dust jacket. With a card from the publisher loosely inserted with printed ‘with the compliments of the author’, and annotated in blue ink, ‘F. A. Batista, 129 North Halifax Avenue, Daytona Beach, Florida’. A very good copy, the black cloth a touch mottled, the binding tight and square, the textblock clean, lightly and evenly toned throughout from paper stock quality, with ink ownership signature to front endpaper and faint paperclip rust mark from which the compliments card sat. The dust jacket priced at $3.95 net to front flap, lightly rubbed along the corners and spine tips, some joints, with a few light stains.
An important autobiography from the Cuban populist about his two terms as dictator, and his exile. Born into a relatively poor family, Batista joined the Cuban army as a shorthand typist in the early 20s and only a decade later played a significant role in the Sergeant’s Revolt. His populist politics led him to presidency in 1940, and the years that followed were both his legacy and his downfall. Financed by American gangsters, Cuba—and Havana in particular—became a haven for American tourists, with world-leading casinos, unlimited nightlife, and a theme which Batista ran with, ‘beautiful women’, all the while lining his own pockets with Uncle Sam’s brass. The regime, of course, had been and continued to be replicated across Central and South America by way of the age-old and little-debated Monroe Doctrine. In 1950s Cuba, anti-American sentiment grew and though the economy seemed to be booming, the country had become a hedonistic inferno. Famously, one brazen lawyer, Fidel Castro, led Batista’s overthrow in 1959. By the time of publication of the book, Batista was living in exile, beachside on Daytona Beach, FL, his popularity an all-time low. That said, the CIA continued to support him over the continuously-left-leaning Castro, who was under intense pressure from the recently installed trade embargo, the support coming in honour of anti-Communism and less pro-Batista. The book is of course propaganda, twisting every negative fact of his own regime and his checkered history on a supposed Communist threat, on revolutionaries, on liberalism etc. etc. There is an admittedly quite stirring opening dedication to Cuba and its peoples, A curious tale; seldom does a dictator write upon his own tyranny, since seldom does he survive it. An uncommon book.