Librarian finds treasure in the stacks

The discovery in Widener Library of two unpublished poems by Nicaraguan modernist Rubén Darío in his own handwriting, as well as dozens of books from his private collection, sparked headlines throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Mexican poet and literary critic Carmen Boullosa traveled to Cambridge to see the resulting exhibit "Rubén Darío at Harvard: Books and Manuscripts from the Poet's Library," and told her readers in the prestigious Reforma newspaper of Mexico City, "The very trees of Cambridge with their ebullient yet melancholy beauty seemed to applaud the return of our poet to the news." All this international buzz began on a quiet day when David Whitesell, Houghton Library rare book cataloger, decided to wander over to Widener Library to check out a minor cataloging problem. He discovered the Darío poems in a book by an obscure Argentine poet.