Rodolfo Usigli Archive: Correspondence Finding Aid
Rodolfo Usigli Archive: Correspondence Finding Aid OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION Title: Rodolfo Usigli Archive: Correspondence Creator: Rodolfo Usigli Dates: 1927-1979 Media: Correspondence (letters, postcards, telegrams, invitations) Quantity: 4 linear feet Location: Manuscript Closed Stacks COLLECTION SUMMARY The Usigli Archive is a repository of the papers of Rodolfo Usigli (1905-1979), Mexican playwright, essayist and diplomat. The Archive is a comprehensive research collection relating to Usigli’s life and career, including correspondence, both manuscript and typed drafts of original plays and translations of works by other artists, personal, theatrical, and diplomatic photographs, essays, books, playbills, posters, theses written about Usigli, awards, newspaper and magazine articles, memorabilia, and ephemera. The correspondence section of the Archive, detailed here, includes letters to and from George Bernard Shaw, José Clemente Orozco, Octavio Paz and many others who Usigli associated with throughout his long literary and diplomatic career. PROVENANCE OF THE COLLECTION The knowledge and support of Miami professor Ramon Layera was critical to both the acquisition and promotion of the collection, while Phelps and Beverly Wood made the key donation that enabled Miami University to purchase the Usigli Archive. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Diplomat, translator, historian, drama critic, but above all playwright Rodolfo Usigli can be described as one of the founders of modern Mexican drama. He was born in Mexico City in 1905, the son of immigrant parents. Forced to leave school to work after his father’s death, Usigli was largely self-educated. In 1935 he received a Rockefeller scholarship to study drama direction and composition at Yale University. Returning to Mexico he taught drama at the [Usigli Archive: Correspondence] Page 2 university level and worked for the Institute of Fine Arts, reviewed plays, translated poetry and drama from both English and French, and wrote his own plays, including his signature piece El Gesticulador (The Impostor).
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