Madrid: (Esso Columbiana S.A.) 1962. First edition of the author's fourth book, winner of the Esso Literary Prize, editor's issue (ejemplares de editor) limited to 170 numbered copies specially bound, this copy number 4. About a year after its first publication, Garcia Marquez noticed that, "The first time this work was published in 1962, a proofreader took the liberty of changing certain locutions and of ironing out the style in the name of linguistic purity." In the second edition of La Mala Hora, published in 1966, Garcia Marquez restored his original "idiomatic terminology and stylistic barbarities in the name of his sovereignty and arbitrary will. Small 8vo, original full mottled calf with red morocco labels on spine, marbled endpapers, t.e.g. A very fine copy.