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Guide to the Fernando Alegria Papers
M0651  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography / Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Fernando Alegria papers
    Dates: 1924-2000
    Bulk Dates: 1940-1998
    Collection number: M0651
    Creator: Alegr?a, Fernando, 1918-
    Collection Size: 59 linear ft.
    Repository: Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.
    Abstract: The collection contains correspondence with virtually every prominent literary figure in Latin America during the mid-to-late Twentieth Century, including Pablo Neruda, Salvador Allende, Augusto Roa Bastos, Jaime Alazraki, Isabel Allende, Carlos Fuentes, Juan Rulfo, Nicanor Parra, and many others. Also includes correspondence with North American authors such as Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as well as Linus Pauling.The collection also contains numerous manuscripts by Alegria and other Latin American authors, including Raul Barrientos, Jorge Bernales, Alejo Carpentier, Joaquim-Francisco Coelho, Roque Dalton, Humberto Diaz-Casanueva, Juan Armando Epple, Mario Antonio Espinosa, Ricardo Israel, Reynaldo Jimenez, Luis Merino, and Pablo Neruda.
    Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

    Access

    Collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least 24 hours in advance of intended use.

    Publication Rights

    Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.

    Preferred Citation

    Fernando Alegria papers, M0651. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of Fernando Alegria, 1989 and his son, Daniel S. Alegria, 2000.

    Biography / Administrative History

    Fernando Alegria, born September 16, 1918 in Santiago, Chile, to Santiago Alegria Toro and Julia Alfaro, is a poet, novelist and educator. He married Carmen Letona Melendez on Jan. 29, 1943. Together they had four children: Carmen, Daniel, Andres, and Isabel.
    Alegria received his M.A. from Bowling Green State University in 1941 and his Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in 1947. He taught as a professor at the University of Chile, 1939; as an instructor at Bowling Green State University, 1940-1941; as an instructor, 1947-1949, as an assistant professor, 1949-1955, as an associate professor, 1955-1963, and as a professor, 1964-1967 at University of California at Berkeley; and as a professor at Stanford University from 1967-1998.
    From 1970 through 1973, Alegria served as cultural attach? from the government of Salvador Allende to the United States, using his home in Berkeley, California as his base of operations in this capacity.
    Alegria's organizational affiliations include the Instituto Internacional de Literature Iberoamericana ; the American Association of Teachers of Spanish; and the Sociedad de Escritores.
    He was a Guggenheim Fellow, 1947-1948; he won the Latin American Prize of Literature, 1943; as well as the Premio Atenea and Premio Municipal.
    He published extensively; his works include Recabarren, 1938; Ideas esteticas de la poesia moderna, 1939; Ensayo sobre cinco temas de Thomas Mann, 1949; Walt Whitman en Hispanoamerica, 1954; Caballo de copas, 1957; My Horse Gonzales, 1964; Historia de la novela hispanoamericana, 1965; Genio y figura de Gabriela Mistral, 1966; Los dias contados, 1968; Los mejores cuentos de Fernando Alegria, 1968; Amerika, 1970; Coral de Guerra, 1979; El Paso de los gansos, 1980; The Chilean Spring, 1980.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection contains correspondence with virtually every prominent literary figure in Latin America during the mid-to-late Twentieth Century, including Pablo Neruda, Salvador Allende, Augusto Roa Bastos, Jaime Alazraki, Isabel Allende, .Carlos Fuentes, Juan Rulfo, Nicanor Parra, and many others. Also includes correspondence with North American authors such as Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as well as Linus Pauling.
    The collection also contains numerous manuscript items as well as copies of printed works by Alegria and various Latin American authors, including Raul Barrientos, Jorge Bernales, Alejo Carpentier, Joaquim-Francisco Coelho, Roque Dalton, Humberto Diaz-Casanueva, Juan Armando Epple, Mario Antonio Espinosa, Ricardo Israel, Reynaldo Jimenez, Luis Merino, Pablo Neruda, Frederick Nunn, Roberto Quesada, Louis Marcos Rodriguez, Bernardo Subercaseaux, and Ines Villafa?e Le?n amongst others.
    The collection also contains extensive subject files on notable Latin American authors, his notebooks, diaries and calendars. It also contains documentation on various international Latin American writer's conferences.
    The collection also contains more than 3,000 photographs and slides of Alegria, his family, various authors and other literary figures, as well as images used in his various books.
    The collection includes a series of 31 political posters from the 1960's with additional posters for readings given by Alegria from the 1970's through the 1980's, as well as performances by Chilean cultural groups, such as Inti-Illimani.