Texas university acquires Garcia Marquez papers
Washington (AFP) - Nobel-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez's manuscript for his masterpiece "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and a trove of his other papers have been acquired by the University of Texas, it said on Monday.
A half-century of the acclaimed writer's original manuscripts and personal papers, mostly in Spanish, are among the documents in the newly-acquired archives, which are to be housed in the university's Harry Ransom Center.
Born in Colombia, Garcia Marquez died in Mexico City in April at the age of 87.
The center which will house his papers at the University of Texas in Austin, the Texas state capital, is home to a humanities research center, a museum, and a library.
Officials there said they plan to hold a symposium next year on Garcia Marquez's influence in the world of letters, timed to coincide with the collection being made available to researchers.
"Garcia Marquez is a giant of 20th-century literature whose work brims with originality and wisdom," Bill Powers, president of The University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement.
"The University of Texas at Austin -- with expertise in both Latin America and the preservation and study of the writing process -- is the natural home for this very important collection," he said.
Powers did not say how much the center paid to obtain the collection which includes more than 2,000 Garcia Marquez letters.
The trove of documents includes drafts of his 1982 Nobel Prize acceptance speech and more than 40 photograph albums documenting all aspects of his life.
Among the correspondence are letters from legendary writers Carlos Fuentes, Graham Greene, James Joyce and William Faulkner, university official said.
