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Subject: NEWS: Ruben Dario's library at Harvard
Author: Rory Miller <[log in to unmask]> at Internet
Date: 07/11/1999 10:26
From: Pat Noble <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: NEWS: Ruben Dario's library at Harvard
>From: Gayle Williams <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Fw: Ruben Dario at Harvard
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Nancy Hallock <[log in to unmask]>
Forwarded from lala-l. - Pat
=======================================
>>RUBEN DARIO'S LIBRARY,
>>REDISCOVERED AT HARVARD AFTER 80 YEARS,
>>NOW ON EXHIBITION
>>
>>A small but highly important portion of the library of Nicaraguan poet
>>Ruben Dario (1867-1916), the father of Spanish Modernist poetry, has been
>>discovered on the shelves of Widener Library. The 40 books and manuscripts
>>include several previously unknown and unpublished poems by Dario; the
>>poet's own copy of one of his books; volumes with Dario's marginal
>>annotations; and books with revealing presentation inscriptions, given to
>>Dario by his close personal and literary friends. A selection is now on
>>public display for the first time in "Ruben Dario at Harvard: Books and
>>Manuscripts from the Poet's Library," an exhibition at the Houghton
>>Library of the Harvard College Library, 1 November 1999-22 January 2000.
>>
>>Acquired by Harvard a few months after Dario's death in 1916, the volumes
>>were dispersed throughout the Widener Library stacks. One book was
>>rediscovered in December 1997, and after several months of detective work,
>>39 more were located among Widener's several million books. All 40 have
>>now been reunited and transferred to the Houghton Library.
>>
>>The most important item was also the first to be discovered: a book whose
>>blank pages Dario filled with manuscript verse. Included are two
>>previously unknown poems as well as early drafts of two poems ("Caracol"
>>and "Marina") later published in Cantos de vida y esperanza.
>>
>>Dario's library contained many works by contemporary Spanish and Latin
>>American writers, given to him by their authors and bearing interesting
>>presentation inscriptions. The exhibition features several of the best: a
>>book inscribed by the Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini; books by Alberto
>>Ghiraldo and Regino E. Boti, who later did much to collect, preserve, and
>>publish Dario's work following his death; and verse by Dario's close
>>friends Leopoldo Lugones, Ricardo Rojas, and Rufino Blanco-Fombona. In
>>1914 his old friend, the Bolivian poet Ricardo Jaimes Freyre, presented
>>Dario with a copy of his classic Leyes de la versificacin castellana
>>(1912). When found in the Widener stacks, the book showed evidence of
>>having circulated literally dozens of times to generations of Harvard
>>students, perhaps none of whom realized that this volume on poetic
>>technique inscribed to "Ruben" once belonged to one of the greatest
>>Spanish poets!
>>
>>The discovery of these volumes adds a poignant footnote to Dario's life.
>>All were purchased from a Madrid bookseller, who offered them to Harvard
>>less than three months after Dario's death. The books could only have
>>come from Dario's Spanish consort, Francisca Sanchez of Madrid, who along
>>with their son Ruben was left in desperate financial straits after Dario's
>>death. Sanchez refused to part with Dario's papers, which she eventually
>>gave to the Spanish nation in 1955, but her plight apparently forced her
>>to sell his library. Today, 83 years later and 4,000 miles away, the
>>nucleus of Ruben Dario's library has at last been reassembled at Harvard.
>>
>>Hours: Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. >>No
admission charge. The Houghton Library is located in Harvard Yard, next >>to
Widener Library, and is near the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and >>Quincy
Street. For more information, contact David Whitesell at (617) >>495-2509 or
<[log in to unmask]>.
>>
>
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