The shelknam. Indigenous people of Tierra del Fuego. (...) Homage of the Salesian missionaries to their benefactors. Buenos Aires. Graphic Workshops of the Compañía General de Fósforos. 1915.

Very rare. Quarto (23.2 x 16.5 cm / 9.13 x 6.49 in), X (includes Cover), 228 pp., Highly illustrated. Paperback publisher binding. Very good copy.

We are facing a work that transcends its initial mission. Written by the Salesian Missionary J. M. Beauvoir, it brings together the voices of the Selknam language and illustrates his work with photographic images of great historical value. In the text beyond the Dictionary -by the way very rich-, and an explanatory prologue, we find a brief “shelknam” grammar and some ethnic notions presented in four lines.

Beauvoir arrived at the Salesian Mission of Tierra del Fuego in 1892 and immediately set about the task of learning the language. Aware of the path to extermination that those native inhabitants were living, he sought to rescue their language to preserve it, understanding that this was how he saved his spirit. In this task he thanked the priest Juan Zenone, who later was director of said Mission, for his notable linguistic contribution to the edition of this work. SEH-IX