Isabel Allende presents the manuscript and the first cover of ‘The House of the Spirits’ to the Instituto Cervantes

The Diplomat The Instituto Cervantes' Caja de las Letras (Box of Letters) has received the legacy of Chilean writer Isabel Allende (1942), which includes the manuscript and the first cover of her novel La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits). The presentation ceremony, held last Thursday at the Institute's headquarters in Madrid, was attended by writer and Instituto Cervantes Secretary General Carmen Noguero, and honorary witnesses included Johana Castillo, the author's literary agent; Lori Barra, photographer and daughter-in-law of Isabel Allende; Javier Velasco, Chilean ambassador to Spain; and Carlos Andradas, rector of the Menéndez Pelayo International University. During the ceremony, the writer celebrated the arrival of her belongings at the Instituto Cervantes, despite never having imagined that "she would have a safe somewhere." She explained that the manuscript of her most emblematic work introduced is not the first, but a second copy with corrections to the original. In addition to the manuscript and The House of the Spirits, Allende also left one of the first editions of her book Paula, an autobiographical novel in which she discussed the death of her daughter, Paula Frías, who died in Madrid at the age of 29 from a rare disease. "It's the book that has given me the most in my life. I receive letters from readers every week, and it remains present in my life as both a book and the spirit of my daughter," she explained. In fact, the legacy includes a letter from "a medical student who explained that she is taught to work with the illness, but what matters is the patient and the patient's family, who also suffer from the situation, and that completely changed her way of approaching medicine." The collection is completed with a photograph of her mother (with whom she has corresponded since 1987 and now houses 24,000 letters) and other images of personalities who have passed through her life, such as the Dalai Lama, former US President Barack Obama (after receiving the Medal of Freedom), actor Antonio Banderas, and the entire cast of the adaptation of The House of the Spirits, including Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, and Meryl Streep. For her part, Carmen Noguero stated that Allende's work "crosses borders and fuses fantastic elements with everyday life, allowing the unusual to coexist with the ordinary." Afterwards, a ceremony was held to award Isabel Allende an honorary doctorate from the Menéndez Pelayo International University. Isabel Allende, born in Peru and raised in Chile, has served on the Board of Trustees of the Instituto Cervantes representing Hispanic American Literature and Culture for two consecutive terms (from 2009 to 2012 and from 2012 to 2018), is the author with the most translated work from Spanish (The House of the Spirits) and is also the most translated female writer, alongside other names such as Almudena Grandes and Carmen Martín Gaite. Exiled in 1975 after the coup d'état in Chile, she began her writing career in 1982 with The House of the Spirits. Her books include titles such as Eva Luna, Paula, The Island Beneath the Sea, Violeta, and The Wind Knows My Name, which have been translated into more than 42 languages, have sold over 80 million copies, and have received more than 60 international awards. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which also includes Don De Lillo, Tom Ford, and Joyce Carol Oates, she was awarded Chile's National Prize for Literature in 2010. In addition to her writing career, she devotes much of her time to the fight for human rights. She is the founder of the Isabel Allende Foundation, whose mission is to empower women and girls in vulnerable situations, guaranteeing their reproductive rights, economic independence, and protection from violence against them. She currently lives in California.

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