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Selected Papers of Alberto Girri

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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Girri, Alberto

Alberto Girri was born on 27 November 1919 in the Argentine capital, the son of Juan and Delfina (Scelza) Girri. Later, he studied in the department of philosophy and letters at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He published his first book, Playa sola, in 1946, and went on to author over 30 poetry volumes and several of prose. Girri was a member of the "generación de los cuarenta" (40s generation), and his use of surrealism and hermeticism have earned him much renown. During the nearly fifty years of his literary career he received many international poetry prizes, as well as two Guggenheim Foundation fellowships in 1964 and 1977. Girri also collaborated in the literary supplement of La Nación and Sur, and translated into Spanish writings by Blake, Eliot, Spender, Hopkins, and Wallace Stevens. He died in Buenos Aires in 1991.

Consists primarily of manuscripts of Girri's published poetry collections from the years 1967 to 1985. There is also a small selection of English translations of Girri's poems, some correspondence with Latin American writers, and other miscellanea.

Some of the manuscripts found in draft form in the collection came to print in the following publications authored by Alberto Girri: Casa de la mente (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1968), Valores diarios (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1970), En la letra, ambigua selva (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1972), Diario de un libro (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1972), Quien habla no está muerto (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1975), Árbol de la estripa humana (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1978), Lo propio, lo de todos (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1980), Monodias (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1985), Existenciales (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1986), and Cuestions y razones, prologue by Jorge Cruz (Buenos Aires: Editorial Fraterna, 1987).

Purchased from the author and the Hispanic Manuscripts Fund in 1984-1986.

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

This collection was processed by Karla J. Vecchia in 2003. Finding aid written by Karla J. Vecchia in 2003.

No appraisal information is available.

Publisher
Manuscripts Division
Finding Aid Author
Karla J. Vecchia
Finding Aid Date
2003
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

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Collection Inventory

Scope and Contents

This series consists of a small selection of English translations of Girri's poetry, and original manuscripts of several of Girri's poetry collections from the years 1967 to 1985. The manuscripts contain familiar Girri themes: the impossibility of love, the brink of madness, and the anguish of solitude. One of the poems translated by Gilbert Chase distinguishes itself because of its allusion to Lao Tse, the Chinese symbol Girri adopted as representation of the summit of wisdom. This series is organized by type (translations and original manuscripts), and then chronologically by publication date.

Arrangement

Not arranged according to any arrangement scheme.

Physical Description

1 box

Physical Description

1 box

[Untitled], from La condición necesaria, 1960. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"Do You Know of Another," translator unknown, from Elegías italianas, 1962. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"The Necessary Condition," translator and source unknown, dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"On the Precept of Lao Tse: Go Forth Into Life and enter into death," from Envíos, 1966. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To a City Suddenly Considered From a Certain Angle," from Envíos, 1966. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To What Leave Taking Imposes," from Envíos, 1966. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

Poetry translations in English by Stephen C. Jones, from Envíos 1966, TMs (Xerox) with corrections by Girri, 1966. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To a City Suddenly Considered From a Particular Perspective", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To Circumstances Where the Doctrine of Conformity Seems to Triumph", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To a Reader of Keats", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To Someone Who Weeps", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To Questions That are Asked From Time to Time", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To a Green Marble Fountain", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To the Advice of Lao Tse: To Leave Life and Enter into Death", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To That Which Attentive Examination Reveals", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To Some Line of San Juan de la Cruz Remembered on the Morning of the 20th of May 1964", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"To An Unfortunate", dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

TNs (Xerox) by Jones with annotations by Girri, 2 lvs., dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Casa de la mente, version A, TMs with corrections, 1967. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Valores diarios, version A, TMs with corrections, 1969. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Valores diarios, version B, TMs with corrections, 1969. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

En la letra, ambigua selva, version A, TMs with corrections, 1971. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Diario de un libro, version A, pp. 1-51, TMs with corrections, 1971. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Diario de un libro, version A, pp. 52-120, TMs with corrections, 1971. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Diario de un libro, version B, TMs with corrections, 1972. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Quien habla no está muerto, version A, TMs with correction, 1974. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Árbol de la estripa humana, version A, TMs with corrections, 1976-1977. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Lo propio, lo de todos, version A, TMs with corrections and author's doodles, 1979. 1 folder.
Scope and Contents

Back cover of original folder that accompanied the manuscript (in separate folder)

Physical Description

1 folder

Monodias, version A, TMs with corrections, 1984. 1 folder.
Scope and Contents

Poems in this folder include only those published in the work. Of those published but not included in this collection are: "Del penamiento vagabundo," "Tu efigie, bardo," and the five poems of Robert Graves.

Physical Description

1 folder

Clippings of some poem variations, dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Scope and Contents

Poems in this folder include two from the original collection that were not published in the work.

Physical Description

1 box

"Cruz Chica, 21-4-1984," clipping, 1984. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"El poder de los tontos" [corrected title: "Lo insólito diario," although no relation to published version of poem with this title], TMs with corrections, 1984. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Existenciales, TMs with holograph corrections, pp. 1-64, 71-86, 1985. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Clippings of some poems, dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Scope and Contents

This series consists of a small selection of correspondence to Girri by various Latin American writers, including Manuel Mujica Láinez, Silvina Ocampo, Victoria Ocampo, and Octavio Paz. This series is organized alphabetically by correspondent, and then chronologically within each folder.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by correspondent.

Physical Description

1 box

Calvino, Italo, 1975-1977. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Molinari, Ricardo, 1970-1972. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Mujica Láinez, Manuel, 1966-1984. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Ocampo, Silvina, 1976-1977. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Ocampo, Victoria, 1981. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Paz, Octavio, 1969-1971. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Pizarnik, Alejandra, 1971. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Rodríguez-Monegal, Emir, 1970. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Scope and Contents

This series consists of five photographs of Girri taken by Anatole Saderman, and a series of interviews of Girri by Jorge Cruz titled Cuestiones y razones.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Physical Description

1 box

5 photographs of Girri taken by Anatole Saderman, 1983. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Cuestiones y razones, interviews of Girri by Jorge Cruz, 1987. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Print, Suggest