Historia do Fado

Lisboa: Livraria Guimaraes, 1903. First edition. 8vo, 270 pp, rebound at a contemporary or early date in marbled boards backed in red leatherette titled and banded in gilt. Original wraps not present. Illustrated with 13 photographs and drawings. Text in Portuguese.

Previous owner's early and tasteful typographic bookplate to fep, as well as a small bookseller ticket (from Encadernador Alfredo David in Lisboa). Light smudging, toning and foxing within; boards well-rubbed and battered, with snags at the crown. A battered, worn, good only example, but complete aside from the original wraps, and scarce in any condition.

The first (truncated) edition of the first published book length study of Fado, "still a valuable source for fado historiography, especially when addressing the relationship between popular music and national character and how the vernacular was appropriated." - [Silva, p. 166].

Key to Carvalho's project was an examination of the career of A Severa, and of the taverns and underworld of the Lisbon district Mouraria, examining the social fabric and fashions surrounding the Fadistas.

The book is valuable for printing the full lyrics to a number of Fado songs, including an early example of socialist Fado [p.262], with a tantalizing footnote stating that a great number of other socialist fados exist. (Inventory #: 24960)