Members of the Princeton University Library community join readers around the world in mourning the passing of renowned novelist and essayist Mario Vargas Llosa on Sunday, April 13, 2025.

Princeton University Library is deeply honored to be the home of the Mario Vargas Llosa Papers, an extraordinary archive that has drawn countless scholars from around the globe over the years. The collection features an extensive array of manuscripts and typescripts of his literary works, along with correspondence, articles, speeches, and other materials dating back to 1944.

Princeton University Library, home to the Sergio Ramírez Papers, has been honored to receive his visit on several occasions during the fall semester to review his archive and other bibliographic treasures with students, visitors, and family. Ramírez is one of the most distinguished Latin American living writers, having published more than 50 books and received numerous literary awards, most notably the Cervantes Prize in 2017.

A prominent figure in the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Somoza family dictatorship in Nicaragua, Ramírez served as Vice President of the country from 1985 to 1990. He retired from politics in 1997 and soon after published Adiós muchachos, an acclaimed personal memoir and analysis of the Sandinista Revolution. Since then, he devoted himself chiefly to his literary projects. In recent years, he has also become one of the most important critical voices against the Daniel Ortega regime. After the Nicaraguan government threatened to arrest him and banned his most recent novel, Tongolele no sabía bailar , he has lived in exile in Spain. This fall, Sergio Ramírez is at Princeton as a Visiting Professor hosted jointly by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS).

The papers of Jorge Díaz, one of the most distinguished members of Chile’s literary Generación del 50 and an extraordinarily prolific playwright, are now available for research in Firestone Library’s Special Collections. 

Jorge Díaz wrote more than one hundred plays for adult audiences and thirty-seven for children. Some of his best known plays include El cepillo de dientes (1960), Topografía para un desnudo (1965), Toda esta larga noche (1976), Las cicatrices de la memoria (1984), Nadie es profeta en su espejo (1990), Canción de cuna para un anarquista (2003), and El Quijote no existe (2005). In addition to theater, he wrote short stories, poems, radio and TV scripts. He published more than 50 books in Chile, Spain and other countries.