Juan Pablo Duarte, the liberator, Antonio Delmonte y Tejada, the
historian, and a small group of others who flourished shortly before
or at the time of the establishment of the Republic, may be said to
initiate the literature of the country, but their fame is mostly
local. The first generation of Dominican citizens furnished a somewhat
larger proportion of literary men, among whom may be mentioned the
venerable Emiliano Tejera, the late Archbishop Fernando A. de Merino,
Francisco X. Amiama, Francisco Gregorio Billini, Mariano A. Cestero,
the historian Jose G. Garcia and the novelist Manuel de J. Galvan,
though it is significant that the best productions of some of these
appeared after 1880. It is since that year that literature has really
flourished. So fecund have Dominican writers been, and so excellent
their productions, that Santo Domingo occupies a proud place in the
beautiful field of Latin-American literature, where only a few years
ago it was practically unknown. There is an abundance of poets,
essayists, historians and novelists worthy of mention, and an attempt
to single out a few might lead to unjust distinctions.
Pages:
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332