Brothers of Light: The Penitentes of the Southwest
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1937. First edition. Hardcover in illustrated jacket, with woodcut frontis, plates, and vignettes throughout by William Penhallow Henderson. Boards lightly toned else near fine in very good jacket with toning and wear/light chipping at head of spine.
Attractive first printing of this work on the strange and secretive religious order founded in the secluded desert communities in New Mexico territory in the mid 19th century, Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, or Los Penitentes. Self-flagellation, processions, crucifixion reenactment, symbolic cuts, whips, and large crosses were all part of secret Penitentes ritual. Nicely illustrated and scarce in the jacket. . Item #9293
Price: $75.00