«A la luz de la vida» la correspondencia entre Ramón Menéndez Pidal y Américo Castro

Zusammenfassung

This article presents and briefly comments on the preserved correspondence between two of the most relevant figures in the field of twentieth-century Spanish culture: Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869-1968) and Américo Castro (1885- 1972). This is both a personal and a professional epistolary exchange covering almost fifty years (1912-1960). In this work I will first address a series of technical aspects concerning the edition of the correspondence (volume, distribution, senders, recipients, time intervals, anticipated structure, and publication characteristics). Following this, I will deal superficially with other issues of the letters’ contents, namely: the reflection in the correspondence of two very different temperaments; the expression of opinions regarding circumstances of political, social and cultural interest, spanning half a century of Spanish, European and world history; and the explanation of the historical thoughts of both authors, of which the development and evolution over time can be witnessed over the course of these letters. Furthermore, I will mention certain matters dealt with by the collection to a lesser or greater depth, in a way that will be useful for those who may choose to study these more thoroughly (amongst others, the investigative and managerial methods of the Centro de Estudios Históricos, the expansion of Spanish in the world, or Pidal’s candidature for the 1931 Nobel Prize for Literature).