Vintage Paperback Spanish Stories & Tales 1956 Pocket Library. The book is in good condition, it is inscribed by a prior owner with a small signature on the inside front cover (see photos) and there are 2 pages that had ripped that are neatly taped with clear tape and none of the page is missing (see photos). Otherwise, the pages are in perfect condition with no marks or other tears. Edited by Harriet de Onis. Translated into English by John G. Underhill. Pocket Library Book #PL-40. Published by Pocket Books, Inc. in New York. Copyright 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Complete and unabridged edition by Pocket Books published in 1956. The book is one of a distinguished series by The Pocket Library offering to the reader outstanding literary landmarks of all time and all languages in an inexpensive, well-designed format. 6.25" tall and 4.25" wide. From the great literary heritage of Spain, Harriet de Onis has selected 23 magnificent short stories. They have been chosen not only for their classic stature, but for their lively qualities of reading pleasure. The book provides the reader with the opportunity to become acquainted with the delights of Spanish literature, as varied and dramatic as the rich culture that produced it.
The short stories are:
1. My Sister Antonia by Ramon del Valle-Inclan
2. The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges
3. The Call of the Blood by Miguel de Cervantes
4. The Cock of Socrates by Leopoldo Alas "Clarin"
5. Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr by Miguel de Unamuno
6. The Thief and the Ladder of Moonbeams from Calila Dimna
7. The Honor of His House by Carlos Wyld Ospina
8. Sister Aparicion by Emilia Pardo Bazan
9. The Tattletale Parrot from Book of Sendebar
10. Life and Death of a Hero by Arturo Cancela
11. The Fatherland by Horacio Quiroga
12. The Man Who Married an Ill-Tempered Wife by Don Juan Manuel
13. The Dark Night of Ramon Yendia by Lino Novas Calvo
14. The Old Ranch by Ricardo Guiraldes
15. The Cabbages of the Cemetery by Pio Baroja
16. The Heart's Reason by Eduardo Mallea
17. Two Cooing Doves by Ricardo Palma
18. The Prophecy by Pedro Antonio de Alarcon
19. I Puritani by Armando Palacio Valdes
20. A Man of Character by Romulo Gallegos
21. Coyote 13 by Arturo Souto Alabarce
22. Ashes for the Wind by Hernando Tellez
23. The Salt Sea by Benjamin Subercaseaux
Harriet de Onis was a translator, editor, and author born in 1899. She is one of the most influential translators of Latin American literature in the 20th century and foresaw its mid-century boom. Her husband, Federico de Onis, was a renowned scholar of Hispanic literature. Harriet de Onis translated over 40 books from Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese to English. She edited 2 anthologies, mentored other translators, wrote reviews, gave lectures, acted as editorial advisor for Alfred A. Knopf. Born Harriet Wishnieff, she grew up in Sheldon, Illinois and moved to New York to study foreign languages at Barnard College. de Onis worked as a secretary for dancer Isadora Duncan. She earned a graduate degree in Spanish from Columbia University. She managed the Spanish Department at Doubleday, Page & Company and edited an anthology titled "Today's Best Stories from All the World" in 1922, a volume associated with her work as editor at "World Fiction" magazine. Her first book translation was an abridged edition of Martin Luis Guzman's "El aguila y la serpiente", a semi-fictional memoir of the Mexican Revolution translated as "The Eagle and the Serpent". As the first prolific translator of Spanish and Portuguese into English, de Onis helped establish the canon of translated Latin American literature in the U.S. For a number of the works she translated, including "The Eagle and the Serpent", she also acted as an editor and abridged texts to conform to Knopf's specifications. She prompted some writers so effectively that one of them, Columbian author German Arciniegas, asked her to represent him as a sort of unofficial literary agent. de Onis translated books by Alejo Carpentier, Ernesto Sabato, Ricardo Guiraldes, Jorge Amado, Alfonso Reyes, Fernando Ortiz, Joao Guimaraes Rosa, Gilberto Freyre, and other Latin American authors. The majority of her translations were published by Alfred A. Knopf. de Onis maintained correspondence with Alfred and Blanche Knopf, editors such as Herbert Weinstock, and many of the writers whose work she translated. These letters are archived in the Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Collection at the Ransom Center. For her rendering of "Sagarana" by Joao Guimaraes Rosa, she received the 1967 PEN Translation Prize. Harriet de Onis died in 1969.