Darko R. Suvin Collection: Linguistics and Literature

History

Darko R. Suvin, born in Zagreb in 1930, was a university professor, literary and theatre critic, poet, and writer. He taught Literature at the University of Zagreb from 1959 and, from 1968, English and Comparative Literature at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In 2011, he donated his personal library to the University of Milan: a collection of approximately 9,000 volumes, published primarily in English but also in French, German, and Slavic languages, spanning the years 1950 to 2008. The collection includes many rare and hard-to-find works, covering a broad range of subjects, including literature—particularly science fiction and utopian literature—drama and theatre studies, literary criticism and history, cinema, history, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, and sociology. The volumes have been distributed among various libraries of the University:

• The Apice Library holds the science fiction collection.
• The Library of the Centre for Language Mediation and Intercultural Communication in Sesto San Giovanni preserves texts on European and world literature.
• The History of Art, Music and Performing Arts Library houses works on contemporary Western theatre, Elizabethan theatre, and Shakespearean studies.