Letters That Breathe Fire - by Margaret Randall

Book Synopsis

Arguably one of the most important independent literary magazines of the 1960s, El Corno Emplumado/The Plumed Horn made new work from the South available in the North and vice versa. Its scope exceeded that of any clique or group, publishing the most exciting new work of the time along with texts by established writers, its only criterion being quality. Each bilingual quarterly issue included a Letter Section, which reproduced correspondence from contributors and readers--among them: Thomas Merton, Ernesto Cardenal, Julio Cortázar, Denise Levertov, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Raquel Jodorowsky, Clayton Eshleman, and Cecilia Vicuña. They wrote to us about their lives and communities, ideas and aspirations. In these letters, arguments about important issues of the day also took place. Personal and political stories offer a sense of how creative people lived and worked, and those stories continue to have relevance in today's very different world.

About the Author

Margaret Randall is a poet, writer, translator, photographer, and activist who has lived in New York, Mexico City, Havana, Cuba, Managua, Nicaragua, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, with short stays in North Vietnam and Lima, Peru. Her time in these places often coincided with major sociopolitical upheavals or pivotal historic moments. She edited an important bilingual literary magazine for eight years out of Mexico City and has known some of the great minds of her generation. When she returned to the United States, the US government ordered her deported because of opinions expressed in some of her books, and she was forced to wage a five-year battle for restoration of citizenship. Her correspondence with those she met along the way makes for exciting reading.

Randall is the recipient of numerous international awards and the author of over 200 books, four of which were published by New Village Press: My Life in 100 Objects, Artists in My Life, Risking a Somersault in the Air, and Luck.