Annette Smith and Dominic Thomas's new translations of Aimé Césaire's Like a Misunderstood Salvation and Solar Throat Slashed expose to a new audience a pivotal figure in twentieth-century French literature. This collection presents the early and last stages of a po­et's course, encapsulating in one volume Césaire's entire literary career and creative evolution.

AIMÉ CÉSAIRE (1913-2008) was a poet and politician from the French Carib­bean island of Martinique. A teacher of Frantz Fanon, he was one of the founders of the négritude movement.

ANNETTE SMITH is a professor of literature emerita at CalTech.

DOMINIC THOMAS is a professor of French and francophone studies and of comparative literature at UCLA.