Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa
New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1975.
First edition, first printing. Signed by Cesar Chavez on the half-title page and inscribed: "Para Arturo Montoya y familia con Finos Recuerdos. VIVA LA CAUSA! 7/13/78. La Paz." xxv, 546 pp. Bound in publisher's red cloth lettered in gilt on spine, photo illustrated endpapers. Very Good with moderate wear and a little soiling. In a Very Good+ price-clipped dust jacket with light toning, several short edge tears, and damps taining along upper edge more noticeable on verso.
The journalist Jacques Levy spent five years with almost unrestricted access to Cesar Chavez and his closest companions. He created a biography of a movement, not just a man. Most of the work is written in the first person from taped interviews, reinforced with reports and speeches. Levy alone decided what to include and what not include. During his first interview with the journalist, Chavez said that some thought of him as a devil, while others embarrassed him by thinking of him as a saint. No one now can ascribe sainthood to the social justice leader, but his story is essential to the history of American labor.
Price: $850