Overview
Papers of Portuguese writer Agustina Bessa Luís.
Dates
- Creation: 1948-2007
Language of Materials
In Portuguese.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
2 linear feet (2 boxes)Collection is comprised of manuscripts of works published by Agustina Bessa-Luís, all but the last signed and dated by the author with the writing location noted. Works include novels, biographies, travel writings, and essays.
Biographical / Historical
Agustina Bessa-Luís (1922-2019) was a Portuguese writer also involved in journalism and theater. She was the director of the Porto-based daily newspaper O Primeiro de Janeiro from 1986-1987, and from 1990-1993, she was the director of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon. Several of her novels have been adapted into films, including Fanny Owen, Abraham's Valley, The Lands of Risk, and As Terras do Risco, which was the basis for the film O Convento. Bessa-Luís was awarded the Camões Prize, a Portuguese prize for literature, in 2004.
Arrangement
Collection is arranged as received, in chronological order by the date signed by the author.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2020M-077. Purchased with funds from the Amy Lowell Trust, 2020 January.
2022M-55. (Box 3) Purchased from Laura Monica Bessa-Luis Baldaque Lobo with funds from the Amy Lowell Trust, 2021 October 21.
Processing Information
Processed by Betts Coup, 2020. Description is based off notes that arrived with the collection.
- Title
- Luís, Agustina Bessa. Agustina Bessa-Luís papers, 1948-2007 (MS Port 48): Guide.
- Status
- in_progress
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- 2020 February 6
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou03311
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.
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