urn:taro:utexas.hrc.00033 Prudencio De Pereda: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Marsha W. Harper, Stephen Mielke, John Hawthorne University of Texas at Austin 1991-92 Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex Data Services, September 2000. Finding aid written in English. Tue Jul 22 15:08:09 CDT 2003 urn:taro:utexas.hrc.00033 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (20030505). Descriptive Summary Prudencio De Pereda Papers 1935-1973 TXRC93-A37 5 boxes (2.5 linear feet) Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin De Pereda, Prudencio, 1912- Manuscripts of short stories, novels, and other writings, correspondence, clippings of reviews, and miscellany trace the writing career of the author. The collection depicts the Pereda's early career in New York, his interactions with editors and publishers, and with other writers of the period. English. Biographical Sketch

Prudencio De Pereda was born in Brooklyn, New York's Spanish colony on February 18, 1912, to Spanish immigrant parents. He was first encouraged to be a writer after reading Ernest Hemingway as an undergraduate Spanish major at City College of New York (1929-1933). He published his first story in 1936, and during the Spanish Civil War, met Hemingway. The two collaborated on the commentary for the films Spain in Flames and The Spanish Earth, espousing the Loyalist Republican viewpoint. During this seminal period of De Pereda's writing, his activities brought him into contact with a number of other young New York literati who were similarly affected by the war in Spain and other “radical” causes.

During the 1930s and early 1940s, De Pereda wrote short stories that were published in several small circulation magazines, as well as in better-known periodicals such as Commentary, New Republic, Story, and Nation. De Pereda's stories have been anthologized often, and appeared in the O. Henry Memorial Prize Volume (1937) and O'Brien's Best Short Stories (1938, 1940).

From 1941-1944, De Pereda served in the U.S. Army as a Spanish language censor of letters for the U.S. Bureau of Censorship. After World War II he worked as an advertising copywriter and later as a librarian. During this time De Pereda began combining and expanding his stories, producing three novels: All the Girls We Loved (1948), Fiesta (1953), and Windmills in Brooklyn (1960). Fiesta became his best known work, having been published in Canada, England, France, Finland, and the German Democratic Republic. Robert Hanell set it to music as an opera, and it has been adapted as a radio play. De Pereda also translated from the Spanish, Alberto Gerchunoff's Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas in 1953.

De Pereda retired to Sunbury, Pennsylvania.

 Scope and Contents

Manuscripts of short stories, novels, and other writings, correspondence, clippings of reviews, and miscellany trace the writing career of Prudencio De Pereda, 1935-1973. The collection depicts the author's early career in New York, his interactions with editors and publishers, and with other writers of the period. De Pereda's work reflects the influence of Ernest Hemingway, especially during the Spanish Civil War, when they met and worked together on the commentary for the films Spain in Flames and The Spanish Earth. De Pereda's later literary output is represented by manuscripts of his three novels ( All the Girls We Loved, Fiesta, and Windmills in Brooklyn) and his translation of Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas.

The collection is arranged in four series: I. Correspondence, 1935-1973; II. Works, 1935-1960, III. Publicity Material and Reviews, 1947-1961, and IV. Miscellaneous, 1940-1964.

The correspondence is divided into two subseries. Acceptance letters (1935-1951, bulk 1936-1940) from editors and publishers were kept in chronological order by De Pereda. Personal letters received (1935-1973) are arranged alphabetically by author. Correspondents include Carlos Baker, Alvah Cecil Bessie, Paul Bowles, Whit Burnett, Richard Burton, Padraic Colum, Victor Gollancz, Ernest Hemingway (photocopies), James Laughlin, William March, Anäis Nin, Edward O'Brien, Philip Rahv, and Richard Wright. Only one item of outgoing correspondence, from De Pereda to Carlos Baker, survives in this collection. An index of all correspondents is included at the end of this inventory.

The bulk of the materials in Series II., Works (1935-1960), consists of literary manuscripts. Drafts and final versions, typed and handwritten, many with corrections, these manuscripts are arranged in three subseries: Short Stories, Novels, and Other Works. Included are manuscripts of thirty-one short stories and three novels, as well as his English translation of Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas. Also present are manuscripts of commentaries for the film The Spanish Earth, edited and expanded by Ernest Hemingway. One photocopy draft bears Hemingway's editorial marks.

Manuscripts of two of the novels have been arranged in order of final publication. For All the Girls We Loved, working titles of the chapters are included in the folder list in parentheses. The arrangement of Fiesta (original title The Unshared Man) follows categories set up by the author. Within each category, pages are for the most part unnumbered or not numbered consecutively.

Series III., Publicity Material and Reviews (1947-1961), concerns only De Pereda's three novels. Series IV., Miscellaneous (1940-1964), includes other clippings and miscellaneous information, as well as a typescript by author William March, which was posthumously published as 99 Fables in 1960.

For other Prudencio De Pereda materials in HRHRC collections, see John Lehmann - Recip.

A number of books from De Pereda's personal library were also acquired by the HRHRC. These have been cataloged in the online library catalog UTCAT. The Provenance File of the card catalog in the Reading Room may also be of use in accessing books which were owned by De Pereda.

 Acquisition

Purchase and gift from De Pereda, 1973-1979

 Access

Open for research

 Processed by

Marsha W. Harper, 1983; Stephen Mielke, John Hawthorne, 1991-1992

 Index Terms Correspondents Baker, Carlos, 1909-1987 Bessie, Alvah Cecil, 1904- Bowles, Paul, 1910- Burnett, Whit, 1899- Burton, Richard, 1925- Colum, Padraic, 1881-1972 Gollancz, Victor, 1893-1967 Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961 Laughlin, James, 1914- March, William, 1893-1954 Nin, Anais, 1903-1977 O'Brien, Edward Joseph Harrington, 1890-1941 Rahv, Philip, 1908-1960 Subjects Authors, Spanish American Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939--Literature and the war Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939--Motion pictures and the war Document Types First drafts Series I. Correspondence, 1935-1973 Acceptance Letters, 1935-1951 1 1 8/14/35 - 11/21/38 2 1/18/39 - 4/23/51 Personal Letters, 1935-1973 3 Algren, Nelson, 1/8/63 4 Baker, Carlos, 9/10/64 - 5/18/73 5 Berriault, Arline, 10/9/63 - 12/19/67 6 Bessie, Alvah, 7/17/63 - 6/5/73, nd 7 Bowles, Paul F., 8/28/36 - [9/30/41] 8 Burton, Richard, 4/16/56 Coates, Robert M., 8/6/49 Colum, Padraic, 9/19/54, 11/2/54 9 Erlich, Leonard, 4/8/63 - 9/24/63 10 Field, Ben, 9/1/36 Funaroff, Sol, nd, 11/29/38 - 11/19/40 Gardner, Leonard, 7/31/66, 8/26/69 Gibson, Bill [William], 4/26/60 11 Gollancz, Victor, 1/16/62 Goolman, Paul, 8/14/50, 1/14/51 Hansen, Harry, 5/29/40 Haydn, Hiram, 1/11/62 12 Hemingway, Ernest, 11/20/35 - 10/30/47, nd (photocopies) 13 Kirchwey, Freda, 1/5/54 Laughlin, James, nd Mangione, Jerre, 9/26/40, 3/7/42 14 March, William, 12/27/38 - 12/22/46 15 Nin, Anäis, 11/9/53 O'Brien, Edward, 7/6/37 Reid, Arnold, 8/31/36 16 Rosten, Norman, 12/9/36 - 4/25/54, nd 17 Still, Jim, 1/27/40 - 2/24/40 Watts, Richard Jr., 1/25/57 Wright, Richard, 10/14/38 18 Zinberg, Len, 4/20/37 - 9/4/42 Series II. Works 1935-1960 Short Stories, 1935-1951 19 “And Home is Hunted from the Hunt,” 10/10/38 (3 drafts) 20 “The Assassin,” [ca. 1936] 21 “Blow Them All to Glory,” 6/29/38, nd (2 drafts) 22 “The Deal,” [ca. 1951] 23 “Death in the Night,” [ca. 1937] (2 drafts) 24 “The Denunciation,” [ca. 1938] (2 drafts) 25 “He Would Be First,” 6/10/38 (4 drafts) 26 “I Loved a Woman,” [ca. 1940] (2 drafts) 27 “Lament of a Facist General,” [ca. 1939] (2 copies) 2 1 “A Letter from Spain,” [ca. 1940] (2 drafts) 2 “A Little Child,” 9/21/38 3 “Love a Live Body,” [ca. 1936] 4 “Love is Just a Game,” [ca. 1944] (2 drafts) 5 “The Man Who Wouldn't Play Christ,” nd 6 “My Big Brother Goes Back to the Front,” 3/29/38 (2 drafts) 7 “My Grandmother's Nose,” 1948 (2 drafts) 8 “My Soul to Take,” 11/1/38 9 “No Hour for Slumber,” [ca. 1936] 10 “The Picture of a Woman,” nd 11 “A Pioneer,” [ca. 1936] 12 “Rain,” [ca. 1940] 13 “The Resurrection,” 3/29/39 (2 drafts) 14 “Al Salir el Sol” [in Spanish], nd 15 “Sinfonia Fantastica en Verde,” [ca. 1936-1938] 16 “Somebody Bet on the Colored Guy,” [ca. 1940] (2 drafts) 17 “The Spaniard,” [ca. 1937] 18 “A Tale of Thunder,” [ca. 1935-1938] 19 “These Rats Reveal Themselves for You,” nd 20 “Two Americans Look to the Next War,” [ca. 1937] 21 “The Way Death Comes,” 1/13/39 (2 drafts) 22 “A Woman's Way,” nd (2 drafts) Novels, 1948-1960 All the Girls We Loved, 1948 23 Al Figueire I (“The Major”) A Joe (“The Goat”) Al Figueire II (“The Woman Thou Gavest Me”) 24 A Joe (“The Time Has Come, the Sergeant Said”) Al Figueire III (“The Iland”) 25 A Joe (“The Lost Lover”) (2 drafts) 26 A Joe (“The Spanish Shawl”) Al Figueire V (“Nobody Ever Dies”) A Joe (“Death of a Sergeant”) Al Figueire VI (“Fear”) 27 Notes from editor Fiesta, 1953 28 New outline 29 Original draft 3 1-6 First and second drafts 7-10 Original and working drafts, divided roughly into chapters 11-13 Editor's memo (Arthur M. Wang) and revised pages 14 Working draft with editor 4 1-3 Working draft with editor (continued) 4-7 Final ms. complete; includes copy for dust jacket Windmills in Brooklyn, 1960 Part I: Agapito (a combination of two separately titled works) 5 1 “Conquistador” (2 drafts) 2 “If It Should Ever Come to Pass” 3 Part II: “The Good Pair” (2 drafts) 4 Changes and revisions, duplicate early drafts, single page revisions 5-6 Final draft with printer's notations and other corrections 7 Notes from editor, initialled HZ Other Works, 1937-1953 8 Book reviews, nd 9 Commentary, The Spanish Earth (1937) Several versions, some in Spanish. One photocopy includes Ernest Hemingway's holograph corrections. 10 English translation, Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas by Alberto Genchunoff (1953) Series III. Publicity Materials and Reviews, 1947-1961 11 All the Girls We Loved, 1947-1948 12 Fiesta, 1954-1957 13 Windmills in Brooklyn, 1960-1961 Series IV. Miscellaneous, 1940-1964 14 Clippings, publication information, and miscellaneous, 1940-1964 15 [99 Fables] by William March, [ca. 1960] Prudencio De Pereda Papers--Index of Correspondents Ader, Paul Fassett (Ed. FASSETT'S)--1.2 Algren, Nelson--1.3 Alpert, Hollis (MATRIX)--1.2 Baker, Carlos, 1909-1987--1.4 Bemmish, Rae (Ed. CHAMELEON)--1.1 Bernstein, David E. (THE NEW TALENT)--1.1 Berriault, Arline--1.5 Bessie, Alvah Cecil, 1904- --1.6 Bowles, Paul, 1910- --1.7 Burnett, Whit, 1899- (STORY)--1.1-1.2 Burton, Richard, 1925- --1.8 Caliver, Alan (INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS CO.)--1.1 Coates, Robert M.--1.8 Colum, Padraic, 1881-1972--1.8 Conroy, Jack (THE NEW ANVIL)--1.2 Crews, Judson--1.1 Erlich, Leonard--1.9 Field, Ben--1.10 Finsterwald, Maxine (NEW WRITERS)--1.1 Funaroff, Sol--1.10 Gardner, Leonard--1.10 Garfinkel, Sid (Ed. FORGE)--1.1 Gibson, Bill--1.10 Gollancz, Victor, 1893-1967--1.11 Goolman, Paul--1.11 Hansen, Harry (NEW YORK WORLD-TELEGRAM)--1.1, 1.11 Haydn, Hiram Collins--1.11 Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961--1.12 Herring, Robert (LIFE AND LETTERS TO-DAY)--1.2 Hudson, Charlotte (NEW MASSES)--1.2 Kent, Ira Rice (HOUGHTON MIFFLIN)--1.1 Kievits, Jules L. (BLACK & WHITE)--1.2 Kingman, Gordon (Ed. KOSMOS)--1.1 Kirchwey, Freda (THE NATION)--1.13 Laughlin, James, 1914- (NEW DIRECTIONS)--1.13 LeSeur, Meredith (MIDWEST)--1.1 Ligocki, Michael (CREATIVE)--1.1 Lukes, Lee (DECADE)--1.1-1.2 Mangione, Jerre Gerlando--1.13 March, William, 1893-1954--1.14 Moore, Herbert (SHE)--1.2 Neff, Barbara (THE NATION)--1.2 Nin, Anäis, 1903-1977--1.15 Norman, Dorothy (TWICE A YEAR)--1.2 O'Brien, Edward Joseph Harrington, 1890-1941 (THE BEST SHORT STORIES)-- 1.1-1.2, 1.15 Rahv, Philip, 1908-1973 (PARTISAN REVIEW)--1.1 Reid, Arnold (NEW MASSES)--1.1 Rosten, Norman--1.16 Schwarz, B. H. (TOLERANCE)--1.2 Still, James--1.17 Villa, J. (WAKE)--1.2 Watts, Richard --1.17 Wheeler, Ed (TOLERANCE)--1.2 Wright, Richard, 1908-1960--1.17 Wynn, Dudley (THE NEW MEXICO QUARTERLY)--1.2 Zinberg, Len (Ed. LACY)--1.18