viernes, 29 de abril de 2016

Jairo canta a Borges en la Feria del Libro de Buenos Aires 2016




Compartimos la presentación de Jairo en homenaje a Borges,  en la Gran Noche de la Televisión Pública Argentina en la 42ª Feria Internacional del Libro de Buenos Aires.

Fuente : You Tube



Borges in Charlottesville



 
How the work of a Latin-American literary giant found a home at UVA

by Emma Rathbone

C. Jared Loewenstein and Jorge Luis Borges
It's not often that an offhand remark can change the course of a man's life. But that's exactly what happened to C. Jared Loewenstein (Col '66, Grad '92).

In 1967, Loewenstein heard that the celebrated and influential Latin American author Jorge Luis Borges was coming to the University to give a lecture on Edgar Allan Poe. An admirer of Borges' work, Loewenstein attended both the reading and a party afterward at the Colonnade Club, and found himself waiting in line to meet the author. The man in front of him asked Borges a question about Jefferson, to which Borges replied, "Ah yes, Thomas Jefferson, the architect of democracy, and the democrat of architecture."

Loewenstein found the quote remarkable in the way it summed up Jefferson's essence with such casual precision. "When I met him and heard that comment," says Loewenstein, "I thought I had to get to know him better."

Thus began a lifelong fascination with the author, the cumulative effect of which has been one of the world's best and most expansive collections of Borges' work, housed in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

Borges in 1976
For half a century, Loewenstein worked for the University Library, where he started out shelving books in Alderman as a student and eventually became head of the reference department.

"This man from Luray, Virginia, meets Borges for the first time, and it changes his life," says Eduardo Montes-Bradley, a filmmaker who is working on a documentary about the two men, focusing on Loewenstein and how his life has been influenced by the author. "In real life, that isn't something that even Borges could have written about."

The two men didn't cross paths again until 1970, when they met at a conference in New York. They eventually spent time together in Argentina, where Loewenstein came to know Borges on a more personal level.

"He was very low key, very retiring, very shy," says Loewenstein, "and not entirely at home in his fame. He was expected to be some kind of oracle, and he wasn't comfortable with that."

Loewenstein
Loewenstein tells the story of going to lunch with the author during a literary conference. "Everyone there was expecting some amazing lunchtime fête," he says. When the waitress brought Borges his Coke in a bottle, the author talked at length about the Coca-Cola logo, the unmistakable script, how it could be recognized no matter what the language. "Later he said to me, 'I think they were expecting something different,' and he kind of chuckled. I think he recognized what an icon he was."

Loewenstein traveled to Buenos Aires again in 1976, visiting bookstores and letting the owners know that UVA was interested in acquiring the author's works.

The windfall came in 1977, when Loewenstein received a call from a collector in Buenos Aires who said that he had around 400 of Borges' works and offered to sell them. Loewenstein made arrangements, and once the books arrived, the Borges Collection had begun.

"Things just kept happening," says Loewenstein. "We added other books, translations, other manuscripts … under one roof." The collection allows scholars to follow the evolution of some of Borges' work from manuscript form to first printing to complete works. "That's a very powerful tool for literary scholars. It's a way of looking at his development as a writer."




                                One of Borges' drawings

"The collection is extremely valuable," says María-Inés Lagos, a UVA professor of Spanish. "There are things here that are not available anywhere else. There are drawings, and being able to see and touch the manuscripts is an amazing experience."

Lagos once took a professor from New York University, a Borges scholar, to see the items. "She was amazed and could not believe the things we had. I don't think people are aware that we have this incredible collection."

The collection now contains 2,500 to 3,000 items, including one of three known first-edition copies of Moon Across the Way and a first-edition copy of Fervor de Buenos Aires.

"Borges changed the destiny of Jared Loewenstein," says Montes-Bradley. "In the process, the University of Virginia ended up with one of the greatest treasures in literature."


Fuente : University Virginia



martes, 26 de abril de 2016

Alberto Casares: "Borges visitó mi librería y me adelantó que se iría a morir a Suiza"




Alana Gorski

En el Día Mundial del Librero, el histórico librero anticuario argentino recordó una anécdota que vivió junto al gran escritor y que lo marcó para siempre

Si decimos que Buenos Aires es la ciudad que tiene mayor cantidad de librerías por habitante en el mundo, estamos en lo cierto. Y es que según un estudio realizado por el Foro Mundial de Ciudades Culturales, se posiciona por encima de Ámsterdam, Londres, Los Ángeles, Madrid, Moscú y Nueva York, entre otras. En el marco del Día Mundial del Librero, que se celebra hoy, Infobae entrevistó a Alberto Casares, un histórico referente del rubro.

Casares es librero anticuario, y su local, que se encuentra en Suipacha al 400, no es el primero, sino el cuarto que tiene en su haber. Por diferentes razones ha mudado su "biblioteca" a distintos rincones de la Capital Federal.

Por los pasillos de su local han pasado escritores como Adolfo Bioy Casares ó Jorge Luis Borges. De todos, Borges es quien lo ha marcado de por vida. Para él, de ninguna manera se puede eludir su nombre. "Pienso que era el hombre más consustanciado con el libro en todos sus aspectos", explicó.

Pero esto no se detiene aquí. Borges lo eligió. Esa admiración que Casares sentía por él, se tradujo en una relación un poco más cercana cuando le organizó una exposición de sus primeras ediciones.

Fue seis o siete meses antes de su muerte en una librería que yo tenía en la calle Arenales. Allí me dijo: 'Mañana me voy para Europa, paso Navidad en Italia y después me voy a Suiza a morir', recordó Casares a Infobae.

                               Foto  : Julio Giustozzi

"Cuando el 14 de junio de 1986 me enteré de la muerte de Borges, me di cuenta de que la despedida de Buenos Aires, esa ciudad a la que le dedicó tantas páginas, la hizo en mi librería. Es una cosa que a mí me marcó para siempre. Estoy seguro de que él sabía que se iba y no volvía", reflexionó.

Internet y los libros
Casares pasó su vida entre libros. Según su experiencia, la gran cantidad de librerías que hay en Buenos Aires se debe, en parte, al interés y a la conciencia cultural que a lo largo de todos estos años se ha generado en torno al universo de las letras.

En la actualidad, el fenómeno de internet aunque no lo parezca hizo revalorizar el mundo de los libros, desarrolló Casares su teoría. Muchas cosas que la gente pensó que iban a desaparecer, terminaron no siendo así. Con el libro pasó lo mismo. Internet terminó ayudando. Hoy, cualquiera que se interese puede ver primeras ediciones con sus errores y aciertos. Hay un acercamiento que antes no teníamos", explicó.

Tiempos que cambian
Para este librero de profesión, que va pasando con delicadeza las hojas del Quijote, es muy común encontrarse con personas que le dicen tener un libro para ofrecerle, pero que, en caso de que a él no le interese adquirirlo, lo van a tirar. "Eso me demuestra dos cosas. Por un lado que es mentira, no lo van a hacer. Tratan de ver si lo pueden ubicar", reflexionó.

Y agregó: "Antes había que pasar el umbral de una librería anticuaria, hacerse amigo del librero y preguntarle, con una vergüenza espantosa, si uno podía ver o tocar un ejemplar. Eso ya no pasa".

Fuente : Infobae

Foto Alberto Casares : Infobae,com
Foto J.L.Borges : Julio Giustozzi