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
viernes, 29 de abril de 2016
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
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