Background

October, 2008. Presentation of The Theory of Play.
From the bulletin of the New York Multilingual Book Fair Expo:

Ediciones El Pozo presents a bilingual edition of a manuscript found in a Flea Market

-“The Theory of Play”, by Marilla Waite Freeman remained unpublished for 113 years-

On October 4^th, Ediciones El Pozo will present a bilingual edition of the text The Theory of Play (La teoría del juego), by Marilla Waite Freeman, during the Multilingual New York Book Fair Expo, in Astoria. This essay, written in February of 1895, was found in a Flea Market in central New York, among a group of manuscripts of the author.

 The Theory of Play is a literary trip over millions of years since the origin of life until the rising of poetry, “the freest and highest expression of life.” Its author, Marilla Waite Freeman, was born in Honeoye Falls (New York), on February 21 of 1870, and died in Yonkers (New York), on October 29 of 1961. After obtaining a degree in literature, from University of Chicago, in 1897, Marilla went to be, three years later, one of the first women in graduating as a professional librarian in the United States. That profession, Librarian, was the center of her life. Although she also became one of the first female lawyers of the country (she obtained her degree in 1921, when she was fifty years old), she never practiced as a lawyer. Her passion was trying to enrich people’s lives with the help of books.

Marilla worked in many public libraries and her free spirit of “fire maker” brought always enthusiasm and new ideas to those places. Many of her ideas, such as the thematic exhibitions, the inter-library loans, and the traveling libraries, are still a vital part of the library world, but almost no one remem­bers who came up with the idea in the first place.

Since the end of the 19^th century until the mid fifties, Marilla Waite Freeman produced an admirable body of work still dispersed in magazines, waiting to be compiled and appreciated. There is, in her writings, a human perspective and an ethical dimension that not only make them valid today, but even necessary.

“The Theory of Play” is one of the earliest works of a woman whose life was determined for the love of books. With this essay, published one hundred and thirteen years after being written, Ediciones El Pozo begins its series Colección Rescate, dedicated to the rescue of valuable and forgotten literary pieces. The first edition of “The theory of Play” consist of fifty numbered copies. Gustavo Arango, Assistant Professor of Literature at the State University of New York, in Oneonta, translated the essay and edited the book.