The correspondence of the French Hispanist scholar, which will be exhibited at the National Library, reveals its essential role in the international diffusion of great authors of the twentieth century.

When young Mathilde Pomès used to watch the Pyrenees from home, she wondered what was on the other side. Born in 1886 in the village of Lescurry, her curiosity prompted her to learn Spanish and to attend every summer since 1912, some summer courses in Burgos. There she met writers and intellectuals, among them a young poet, Pedro Salinas, who would be part of the Generacion del 27. Her influence as a Sorbonne professor  – she was the first professor of Spanish at that university – helped  Salinas get a post there. That was the first of many selfless favors that she did to the greats of Spanish literature of the first half of the twentieth century. This is demonstrated by the thousand letters she accumulated from 160 figures (Unamuno, Azorín, Falla, Turina, Machado, Azaña, Gomez de la Serna, Gerardo Diego, Alberti, Jorge Guillen ...) and of which a small sample, around 40, almost all unpublished, will be part of an exhibition at the National Library from September 30, 2016.

Read more here - El País