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Cyrus C. DeCoster (1914-1999) Papers

 Collection
Identifier: 11/3/26/2

  • Staff Only
  • No requestable containers

Scope and Contents

The Cyrus C. DeCoster Papers fill one box and span the years 1948-1999. The material summarizes Professor DeCoster's academic work, and is divided into six subseries: biographical material, published articles, book reviews, reviews of books, “Pardo Bazán” drafts, and Juan Valera research material.

Biographical material spans the years 1983-1999. It consists of two curricula vitae and four obituaries. One CV lists only Professor DeCoster's work through 1983, while the other, though taking his work through to its conclusion in the late 1990s, is missing its second page. This page gap omits DeCoster's last four books and first eleven articles.

Published articles include a copy of every article Professor DeCoster wrote from 1950 through “Juan Valera: Cartas ineditas a Juan Moreno Gueto” (1980). (Please see his CVs in biographical material for chronology and bibliographic citations.) Several of these articles are reprints. “Valera: Critic of American Literature” (1960) is represented in both and English and Spanish versions. DeCoster's translation of Alfonso Sastre's “Escuadra Hacia la Muerte” (“The Condemned Squad”), published in Players Magazine in 1961, is foldered separately.

Photocopied book reviews, spanning the years 1948-1983, include a copy of every review Professor DeCoster wrote through his review of Peter Bly's Perez Galdos: “La de Bringas” (1983). For the most part, these reviews are filed chronologically. However, following the review of Alberto Jimenez's Juan Valera y la generacion de 1868 (1956), which is listed as the fifth review in DeCoster's CV, seven of the following book reviews were copied onto two pieces of paper. As a result, there are gaps in the folder where reviews that would be placed in a given spot are instead found on one of these two sheets.

Reviews of DeCoster's books fill six folders, and are arranged by the title of the book reviewed.

The undated “Pardo Bazán” drafts fill 13 folders and consist of some handwritten but mostly typed drafts of “Pardo Bazán and Her Contemporaries,” an article that was published in Anales Galdosianos in 1984 but is not included in this collection. Oddly, although the article itself was only about ten pages in length, it appears that DeCoster wrote and heavily edited over 200 pages of draft material. This may be a draft of another publication that was never finished. Given the confusing nature of this material, it has not been significantly rearranged; the material within the folders has been left unaltered, and the folders themselves have been placed in order based upon the numbering of the pages inside them. Additionally, two more complete drafts of the article and three related articles by other authors are placed in folders after the drafts.

Juan Valera research material is contained in two folders and dates between 1967 and 1968. It consists of two letters that were sent to DeCoster from Jim Howe, a friend in Washington D.C. who assisted DeCoster with his research on Juan Valera (perhaps by visiting the Library of Congress to obtain bibliographic citations and biographical information). There are also three undated booklets of DeCoster's research notes that seem to deal with Valera.

Dates

  • 1948-1999

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is stored off-site and requires two business days advance notice for retrieval. Please contact the McCormick Library at specialcollections@northwestern.edu or 847-491-3635 for more information or to schedule an appointment to view the collection.

Extent

1.00 Boxes

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

DeCoster taught Spanish at Northwestern University for 16 years. He was the author of 11 books and 35 scholarly articles. DeCoster's research focused on 19th century Spanish literature. The Cyrus C. DeCoster Papers fill one box and span the years 1948-1999. The material summarizes Professor DeCoster's academic work, and is divided into six subseries: biographical material, published articles, book reviews, reviews of books, “Pardo Bazán” drafts, and Juan Valera research material.

Arrangement Note

The material is divided into six subseries: biographical material, published articles, book reviews, reviews of books, “Pardo Bazán” drafts, and Juan Valera research material.

Method of Acquisition

The bulk of the Cyrus C. DeCoster Papers were donated to the University Archives by Professor DeCoster on February 1, 1985 as Accession Number 85-13. His widow, Barbara DeCoster, donated the Juan Valera research material to the University Archives on March 26, 2002 as Accession Number 02-36. The series also includes materials transferred to the University Archives by Russell Maylone of the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections as Accession Number 02-39 on April 5, 2002, and items from the University Archives' Faculty Biographical Files.

Separated Materials

A handful of duplicate articles were discarded.

Processing Information

David Smith; June 2002.

Title
Guide to the Cyrus C. DeCoster (1914-1999) Papers
Author
David Smith
Date
01/06/2002
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
eng

Library Details

Part of the Northwestern University Archives Repository

Contact:
Deering Library, Level 3
1970 Campus Dr.
Evanston IL 60208-2300 US
847-491-3635