MY WICKED WICKED WAYS
Inscribed first edition of this collection of poems composed during the same period as THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET, with the controversially suggestive photo of Cisneros on the front cover.
Very good plus to near fine.
Cisneros worked on the poems of this collection during her twenties and early thirties, as period when she says she was attempting to define herself on her own terms: "It is my autobiography, my version, my life story as told by me, not according to a male point of view." As common theme in her works, Cisneros embraces sexuality within her feminist self-definition and chose a cover design for this collection reflecting that. The design caused a "controversy" for its "overtly sexualized image" (Rivera 57). In response, Cisneros argued: "The cover is of a woman appropriating her own sexuality. In some ways, that's also why it's wicked: the scene is trespassing that boundary by saying 'I defy you. I'm going to tell my own story'" (ibid.).
Read more: Rivera, Border Crossings and Beyond: The Life and Works of Sandra Cisneros.
Bloomington, Indiana: Third Woman Press, 1987. 8.5'' x 5.25''. Original color pictorial wrappers with cover photo by Ruben Guzman and design by Ricardo Gonzalez Sapien. viii, 93, [1] pages. Inscribed by Cisneros on the half-title page: "For / Jesse Green / con esperanza / Sandra Cisneros / 17 de diciembre / 1988 / in / Chicago." With folded flyer from signing event laid in. Tiniest wear to extremities. Pages faintly toned. Else clean and sounf.