José Echegaray
LC Reproduction number: LC-USZ62-106754 (b&w
film copy neg.)
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Collection of Spanish Plays
Dramatic works published in Spain from 1812 through the early 1930s
The Collection
of Spanish Plays and its supplement consist
of more than 8,100 dramatic works published in Spain in the late 19th and early
20th
century.
It
was given
to the Library of Congress in 1938 by the Hispanic Society of America. Of
high importance to researchers in the field of Hispanic literature, the collection
provides a broad representation of dramatic works, primarily in Spanish (653
are in Catalan), written and performed between 1812 and the early 1930s.
It contains works published principally in Madrid and Barcelona after 1850
and includes those by lesser-known Spanish authors and regional pieces in
Catalan and Galician. Drama, comedy, and zarzuela (musicals) are well represented
in the collection. The collection contains examples of the varied literary
movements experienced in 19th century Spain from Romanticism to Social Realism.
Among noteworthy authors strongly represented in the collection are the 1904
Nobel Prize recipient José Echegaray (1832-1916), Carlos Arniches
y Barrera (1866-1943), Joaquin Dicenta Benedicto (1863-1917), Antonio García
Gutiérrez (1813-1884), Antonio Gil y Zárate (1793-1861), Manuel
Bretón de los Herreros (1796-1873), and the distinguished género
chico writer Ricardo de la Vega (1839-1910). Plays by noteworthy foreign
writers, such as Victor Hugo, George Bernard Shaw, and William Shakespeare,
appear in Spanish translations in the collection.
The microfilm of the collection was a cooperative effort of the Library
of Congress Hispanic Division and the Library of Congress Preservation Microfilming
Office. The staff of the Preservation Microfilming Office prepared the descriptive
cards for each title and all guides that appear on the microfilm.
The 8179 plays are arranged in alphabetical order by author and are sequentially
numbered. The entire collection consists of 164 reels of 35mm microfilm.
Bibliographic citations on descriptive cards precede each play and provide
the following information: author, title, publisher, date of publication
and collation. Author/title information from these cards was used to compile
the Author Index to the collection, which appears on reel 1. The alphabetical
and numerical order of the plays is retained in the Author Index. However,
there are two alphabetical sequences, one including numbers 1-7894 and a
supplementary section from numbers 7895 to 8179.
A separate file of the descriptive cards, arranged by author, date of publication,
and title is found in the Hispanic Reading Room and is available to those
who wish to consult portions of the collection in the Library of Congress.
The microfilm collection is in the custody of the Library of Congress Microform
Reading Room and is classed under the Library of Congress Microform Shelf
Number, Microfilm 80000 (P).
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