[Nobel Prize Winner] Gabriela Mistral Literary Archive

Item Details

[Nobel Prize Winner] Gabriela Mistral Archive (1889-1957)

Gabriela Mistral won the 1945 Nobel Prize in literature making her the first Latin American and the fifth woman to receive the Prize. Her portrait appears on Chile's 5,000 peso bank note.

Archive of Contracts for works by Gabriela Mistral and related items with various publication places: Johns Hopkins; Atheneum, and others, various dates containing signatures of illustrator Antonio Frasconi and Doris Dana, one of the most important figures in Gabriela Mistral's life.

Archive consisting of 27 individual items including contracts, letters, memorandum and terms of agreements, promotional material, draft copy of English translation of Cuenta-Mundo, plus three titles: "Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral" (first edition, first printing), first edition first printing of "Crickets and Frog" (ex-libris Joan Daves), and third edition of "Poesias Completas" from 1966 (ex-libris Joan Daves). Includes several letters to Mistral prior to her passing in 1957 but no notes or signatures in Mistral's hand. Provenance almost certainly through the estate of long-time agent Joan Daves. The papers of Gabriela Mistral are in the Chilean Board of Libraries, Archives and Museums.  

Items have wear commensurate with working copies of contracts, memos and letters. Several items have chips and tears but no loss of content. Overall good to very good condition.

Gabriela Mistral won the 1945 Nobel Prize in Literature for "her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world", making her the first Latin American of either gender, and the fifth woman, to receive the Prize. Doris Dana and Gabriela Mistral were long-time companions and lovers. Upon Mistral's death at Hampstead General Hospital in 1957, Doris Dana inherited Mistral's papers and was appointed Executrix of Mistral's Estate. Upon her own death In November 2006, Doris Dana's niece, Doris S. Atkinson, acting as Executrix, arranged for Mistral's papers and manuscripts, which Dana had possessed and administered for approximately 50 years, to be donated to the Board of Libraries, Archives and Museums of Mistral's native Chile.