"The First Part of the Life Achievements of the Renowned Don Quixote De La Mancha", by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra, translated from the Spanish by Peter Motteux, illustrated by Salvador Dali. First Edition with Dali illustrations, published by the illustrated Modern Library of Random House, New York. First Edition for Dali illustrations, 1st print, 1946.

This first Dali edition has the lettering printed on the clear mylar dust jacket instead of the front board. [Later reprints have lettering imprinted on the front board]. This first edition is also marked by the freshness and quality of the colors of Dali illustrations.

The original 70+ years old mylar dust jacket shows some wear of the lettering [see photo], hard boards (a little shelf wear), front board with Dali's illustration, cloth spine stamped in gold, 5" x 7.1/4", 587 pages, 10 double-page color plates, many b/w illustrations, nice cream-color paper, very good binding and condition. All ten double-plates are present.

This book contains ten double-page color illustrations and almost three dozen ink illustrations by Salvador Dali. When asked to illustrate the book in 1946, Dali responded with some of his most imaginative methods of creating works of art to date, including the firing of ink filled bullets at the lithography stones and dropping ink filled objects such as eggs and light bulbs onto the stones. The resulting images are among the most visually striking works Dali produced, and enhance the text of this famous literary masterpiece.

"The first edition of Book One of Don Quixote came off a printing press in Madrid on December 20, 1604, and reached the public on Jan 6, 1605 and became quickly an international bestseller. The novel "Don Quixote de la Mancha" is often referred to as the "book of books," because it not only centers on the fantasies of its main character who is turned upside down upon reading the novels of chivalry, but also because it centers on the power of literature itself.

The novels that don Quixote so avidly reads and those literary texts which Cervantes examines are also the actual protagonists of the work. Before crossing the threshold into a world of his imagination, Alonso Quijano appeared to be no different from any other gentleman of his time; he was a mild-mannered conformist known for "not being able to hurt a fly." The turn towards the "unreal" of don Quixote is prompted by his dissatisfaction with the life that he leads, and his attempt to find a more gratifying purpose, and a life that holds the illusion of a more optimistic future. What he encounters are extraordinary experiences, multiple disappointments, and the impossibility of returning to a past that has been forever lost. The impact of media on human mind humorously examined over 400 years ago remains a timeless classic and ranks among the greatest literary works of Western Civilization."

"What had begun as a simple satire on the tedious chivalric romances of the time broadened into a sweeping panorama of Spanish society... Its larger claims, the subdued pathos, its universal humanity, were slower to be appreciated. But within months Don Quixote and Sancho Panza had become legendar. "Don Quixote" is one of those universal works which are read by all ages at all times, and there are very few who have not at one time or another felt themselves to be Don Quixote confronting the windmills.." Don Quixote is often considered the very first novel and certain is among the most influential books of all time."

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali i Domenech, 1st Marques de Dali de Pubol (1904-1989), known as Salvador Dali, Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, in the Catalonia region of Spain.

Dali was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, "The Persistence of Memory", was completed in August 1931. Dali's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dali attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to an "Arab lineage", claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors."

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