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Wolfgang A. Luchting Correspondence
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Wolfgang Alexander Luchting was born in 1927 in Munich, Germany. He studied at the University of Paris, Sorbonne (Paris, France), University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minn), and the University of Munich (Munich, Germany). He received his Ph.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Munich in 1956. From 1956 to 1962, Luchting lived in Lima, Peru, and taught on a part-time basis at two universities in Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and Pontífica Universidad Católica.
In the early 1960s, Luchting began teaching at Antioch College (Yellow Springs, Ohio), where he was assistant professor of German Language and Literature. In 1965-1966, he assumed a teaching post in Spanish and German at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, and in the fall of 1966, he began teaching Spanish and Comparative Literature at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, where he taught until he retired from teaching in 1993.
In 1961, Luchting began publishing his translations of Latin American authors (from Spanish into German) in Germany. He specialized in translating novelists and short story writers from countries of the Andean region and Chile, and has published German translations of works by Ciro Alegría, José María Arguedas, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Enrique Congrains Martín, Julio Ramón Ribeyro, Manuel Rojas, and Mario Vargas Llosa, among others.
The collection consists primarily of correspondence between Wolfgang A. Luchting and Latin American authors, and, in particular, authors from Peru, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico. Some of the primary correspondents include Peruvian writers Julio Ramón Ribeyro, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Ortega, José Miguel Oviedo, and Carlos Meneses; Mexican writers Marco Tulio Aguilera Garramuño, Manuel Mejía Valera, and Gonzalo Martré; Chilean writers Fernando Alegría and Antonio Skármeta, and Colombian novelist Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazábal. There is also one folder of correspondence from the Argentinian novelist Ernesto Sábato, and an original manuscript by Sábato containing suggestions for translators of his novel Abaddón, el exterminador.
The collection also includes a large amount of correspondence between Luchting and Günter W. Lorenz, a German translator and literary critic specializing in Latin American literature; and correspondence between Luchting and German and Swiss publishers, among them Horst Erdmann Verlag, Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Ammann Verlag, and Rowohlt Verlag. There is business correspondence, documents, and printed material, and, in addition to correspondence with publishers, there is one folder of correspondence with the Spanish literary agency, Carmen Balcells, spanning the years 1964 to 1994.
The collection includes a few manuscripts by Luchting, and one by Julio Ramón Ribeyro which were extracted from his letters to Latin American authors. Manuscripts by Luchting include a typescript prologue, probably for a book edited by Luchting and Carlos Meneses, El cuento peruano contemporáneo (1983), and a first draft of his translation into German of a short story by Ribeyro, "Sólo para fumadores." Interspersed in the correspondence received from Latin American authors are a few papers of others, including poems and short stories by Peruvian writer Fernando Ampuero, and a typescript fragment of a novel by Isaac Goldemberg titled "La conversión de Marcos Karushansky."
The biography was based partly on information found in the collection, including Luchting's responses to a questionnaire sent to him by Alvaro Menén Desleal in 1969.
The collection was the property of the author until Princeton purchased the author's correspondence in 1995.
This collection was processed by Claire A. Johnston in 1996. Finding aid written by Claire A. Johnston in 1996.
No appraisal information is available.
People
Subject
- Authors, German -- United States -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Colombian fiction -- 20th century
- Critics -- Germany -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Critics -- Latin America -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Latin American literature -- 20th century
- Latin American literature -- 20th century -- Translations into German
- Novelists, Chilean -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Novelists, Colombian -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Novelists, Mexican -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Novelists, Peruvian -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Peruvian fiction -- 20th century
- Publishers and publishing -- Germany -- 20th century
- Translators -- Germany -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Translators -- United States -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Author
- Claire A. Johnston
- Finding Aid Date
- 2002
- Access Restrictions
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The letters of G. Alvarez Gardeazábal and Günter W. Lorenz are closed during the lifetimes of these authors.
- Use Restrictions
-
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
Collection Inventory
This series consists of several short manuscripts written or transcribed by Luchting and one manuscript by Julio Ramón Ribeyro. The manuscripts by Luchting are articles on Peruvian literature, including one essay on Peruvian short story writer Julio Ramón Ribeyro, with holograph corrections by Luchting and Ribeyro. The manuscript by Ribeyro is a Xerox copy of a manuscript titled "Epílogo," and is probably an epilogue written for one of Luchting's books on Peruvian literature.
Arranged chronologically.
Physical Description1 box
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Probable second draft of prologue to El cuento peruano contemporáneo, book edited by Carlos Meneses and Wolfgang A. Luchting.
Physical Description1 folder
This series contains Luchting's correspondence with Latin American authors. The letters date from 1960 to 1994 and represent many published writers, chiefly novelists, poets, and literary critics, including many well-known Latin American writers, such as José Donoso, Mario Vargas Llosa, Ernesto Sábato, and Manuel Puig. There is also substantial correspondence from writers Julio Ramón Ribeyro, Alvaro Menén Desleal, Enrique Lafourcade, Carlos E. Zavaleta, Enrique Verástegui, Isaac Goldemberg, Manuel Mejía Valera, and critics Carlos Meneses, Julio Ortega, and Jorge Ruffinelli, among others.
This series is arranged three subseries: Letters from Latin American Authors, Luchting's Letters to Latin American Authors, and Restricted Correspondence.
Physical Description8 boxes
This sub-series consists of letters from many Latin American authors, arranged alphabetically, and chronologically within each folder. There is a large amount of correspondence from Juan José Barrientos, Carlos Meneses, Julio Ortega (and Cecilia Bustamante), Julio Ramón Ribeyro, Ernesto Sábato, and Mario Vargas Llosa, in particular.
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent, and chronologically within each folder.
Physical Description3 boxes
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Contains Ribeyro's responses to Luchting's translation queries on Crónica de San Gabriel and miscellaneous manuscripts; letter and translation queries to Luchting by Renate Dedner, chronology by Luchting of his monographs on Ribeyro.
Physical Description1 folder
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Contains manuscript by Sábato which discusses suggestions for cuts and clarifications in translating his novel, Abbadón, el exterminador, TMs with holograph corrections by Luchting and Sábato.
Physical Description1 folder
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This sub-series consists of Luchting's letters (carbon or Xerox copies) to Latin American authors, spanning primarily the period from 1968 to 1985. In particular, there is a large number of letters sent by Luchting to Barrientos, Bryce Echenique, Meneses, Ortega and Bustamante, Ribeyro, Ruffinelli, Sábato, and Vargas Llosa.
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent, and chronologically within each folder.
Physical Description3 boxes
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This sub-series consists of the correspondence of Luchting and three authors: Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazábal, José Miguel Oviedo, and Günter W. Lorenz. "Double restrictions" means the correspondence of these authors is restricted during the lifetimes of both the authors and of Luchting.
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent, and chronologically within each folder.
Physical Description2 boxes
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9 folders
This series contains Luchting's correspondence with German and Swiss publishers and with the Spanish literary agency Carmen Balcells. The correspondence consists of business letters, translation queries, contracts, receipts, and printed material.
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent, and chronologically within each folder.
Physical Description2 boxes
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Included in this series is Luchting's correspondence with journals of Latin American literature published in New Zealand, Germany, and the Netherlands; correspondence with literature professor Albert Dessau; and printed material about the German translator and literary expert on Latin American literature Günter W. Lorenz. The printed material about Lorenz includes press clippings on a Latin America Colloquium held in 1976 at the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen [Institute for Foreign Relations] in Stuttgart, Germany.
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent, and chronologically within each folder.
Physical Description1 box
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