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Book/Printed Material Rubén Darío's "Black Oilskin Notebook". Rubén Darío's "Cuaderno de hule negro"

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About this Item

Title

  • Rubén Darío's "Black Oilskin Notebook".

Other Title

  • Rubén Darío's "Cuaderno de hule negro"

Summary

  • The Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío was one of the main representatives of modernism and one of the most influential authors in Spanish literature at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. His own personal archives, comprised of over 5,000 documents, include material produced in 1893-1923 related to his diplomatic and literary endeavors as well as to his private life. The typology of the documents varies: drafts, photographs, letters, handwritten notes, postcards, business cards, wills, telegrams, press clippings, official correspondence, invoices, food menus, and so forth. Among all the documents, the one that stands out is a notebook that contains autographical poems by Darío, drawings made by his son, and handwritten pieces about his most private family life. It is a school notebook with oilskin covers that Darío took on his journey to Nicaragua in 1907-8 and then back to Spain. The condition of both the oilskin covers and the pages show evidence of time having taken its toll; they also show that, once Darío returned home, the notebook served other purposes, notably that of being a sketch pad for his son, Rubén Darío Sánchez (nicknamed "Güicho"). The notebook contains drawings, lines, and doodles in pencil made by the child on all the pages, including those that have writing by Darío. Four pages are missing at the beginning and the pagination of the notebook was done at a later stage. The first 38 pages contain a series of autographical poetic compositions by Darío, both complete and incomplete, including various edited poems (autographical versions and printed versions of some of them differ, the former being the first originals); several unpublished poems: and five stanzas of another poem. The most notable contents are "In Autumn" (pages 1-11), which is incomplete, and the original manuscript for "Song of Autumn" (pages 13-14). Almost at the end of the notebook (pages 41-59) are pages copied in an uneven hand by Francisca Sánchez, possibly from a chapter of an unpublished novel by Darío, La isla del oro (Island of gold). Francisca was the poet's partner from 1899 and it was Darío, together with Amado Nervo, who taught her how to write. On page 40 of the notebook is a curious note in Darío's hand with the telegraphic codes that he used to communicate with his son Rubén and Francisca. After the author's death in 1916, Francisca Sánchez kept the documents in a trunk in her home in Navalsaúz (Ávila) until 1956, when she donated them to the Spanish Ministry of National Education. The archive remained in the Faculty of Philology of the Complutense University of Madrid until 2008, when it was transferred to the Heritage Library of the Complutense University of Madrid, the institution that preserves and provides access to these documents.

Names

  • Darío Sánchez, Rubén Contributor.
  • Darío, Rubén, 1867-1916 Creator.
  • Sánchez del Pozo, Francisca, 1874-1963 Contributor.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1907.

Headings

  • -  Spain
  • -  Nicaragua
  • -  1907
  • -  Darío, Rubén, 1867-1916
  • -  Modernism (Literature)
  • -  Notebooks
  • -  Poetry
  • -  Poets
  • -  Spanish poetry

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  "The notebook is included as part of the Complutense University of Madrid Archives under Number 540, Folder Six."--Note extracted from World Digital Library.
  • -  Original resource extent: 59 pages ; 21.5 x 17.5 centimeters.
  • -  Original resource at: Complutense University of Madrid.
  • -  Content in Spanish.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021668199

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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The Library asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here.

Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Darío Sánchez, Rubén Contributor, Rubén Darío, and Francisca Sánchez Del Pozo. Rubén Darío's "Black Oilskin Notebook". [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, 1907] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668199/.

APA citation style:

Darío Sánchez, R. C., Darío, R. & Sánchez Del Pozo, F. (1907) Rubén Darío's "Black Oilskin Notebook". [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified] [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668199/.

MLA citation style:

Darío Sánchez, Rubén Contributor, Rubén Darío, and Francisca Sánchez Del Pozo. Rubén Darío's "Black Oilskin Notebook". [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, 1907] Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021668199/>.