The State University of New York Press can be complimented warmly for making available such a handsome edition of Martín Fierro. It is bilingual— in a style of type easily read. The Spanish appears on one side of the page, English on the other. Notes are placed conveniently on the bottom of the page, not in the back of the book. There are seven illustrations by the noted Argentine artist, Antonio Berni. And a bibliography is included to help the student to begin his studies on Martín Fierro.

The reproduction of Berni’s striking illustrations should be lamented. Considering the importance of the artist and the poem, more care should have been taken to bring out the shades and tones in the drawings. It is perhaps the major flaw, and an important one, in an otherwise impressive edition.

A final criticism concerns the introduction. Astiz, who is a political scientist, refrains from extolling the literary merits of Martín Fierro, but he might well have commented on those political and social conditions about which the protagonist of the story complained so strongly—for example, the political and military institutions of the Argentine frontier or the policies of Presidents Sarmiento and Avellaneda with regard to the Indians, to public lands, and to caudillismo.