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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Span 159

Rubén Darío compositions

Overview

Compositions of Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío.

Dates

  • Creation: 1879-1914

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in Spanish.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

.2 linear feet (3 volumes and 1 box)

Consists of autograph manuscript revisions of poems and prose works. Of note in this small collection is an undated autograph manuscript copy by Darío of his poem "La fe", originally published when he was 12 years old. In addition, two of the works represented herein, "El Rey Burgés" and "Palomas blancas...y garzas morenas", appeared in Darío's crowning literary achievement, Azul, 1888, a collection of poems and prose pieces. "Testamento del literato Don Rubén Darío", a meditation by the poet on his life and work, has never been published.

Biographical / Historical

Nicaraguan diplomat, journalist, and poet Rubén Darío (pseudonym of Félix Rubén García Sarmiento) is widely regarded as the father of Spanish-American modernism. Heavily influenced by Victor Hugo and the French Parnassians and Symbolists, chiefly Paul Verlaine, he combined neoclassical alexandrine verse with modern exoticism and sensualism to create an œuvre in which the sanctity of art and the sensibility of the artist are major themes. He was a writer of conflicting impulses: a pious Catholic as well as a liberal, anti-clerical romantic who believed art to be a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds; a "man of the Americas" who nevertheless looked to Europe for cultural models; a champion of democracy and the nobility of labor who engaged in flights of the most rarified fancy.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by title of composition.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2008M-39. Purchased with the Amy Lowell Trust from Libros Latinos, P.O. Box 1103, Redlands, California 92373; received: 2008 October 23.

2009M-99. Purchased with the Amy Lowell Trust, Raimundo Lida Memorial Fund, and Franklin H. Hooper Fund from Libros Latinos, P.O. Box 1103, Redlands, California 92373; received: 2008 October 23. 2019M-71. Purchased with funds from the Bennett Hubbard Nash Fund, 2019 February.

2020M-5. Purchased with funds from the Bennett Hubbard Nash Fund, 2019 July.

2020M-37. Purchased with funds from the Amy Lowell Trust, 2019 September.

Processing Information

Processed by: Michael W. Austin

Title
Darío, Rubén, 1867-1916. Rubén Darío compositions, 1879-1914 (MS Span 159): Guide.
Status
completed
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02079

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440