Julio Cortázar Papers

Cortázar, Julio

Julio Cortázar was born on August 26, 1914, in Brussels, Belgium, where his Argentine parents, Julio José Cortázar and María Herminia Descotte de Cortázar, were on a business trip. Once World War I began, the family was forced to remain in Europe for several years. Finally in 1918 they returned to Argentina and settled in a suburb of Buenos Aires. Cortázar's father left the family soon afterwards, and Julio and his sister were raised by their mother and aunt.

Starting at a young age, Cortázar demonstrated both a love of and aptitude for literature and received nurturing and guidance in his writing from his teachers. Cortázar received primary (1932) and secondary (1935) teaching degrees, but due to economic reasons, he was forced to cut short his studies at Universidad de Buenos Aires and begin teaching in the remote provincial towns of Bolívar and Chivilcoy. From 1944 to 1945 Cortázar taught French literature at Universidad de Cuyo, Mendoza, but in 1946 he resigned as a result of his political views and his anti-Perón demonstrations.

Back in Buenos Aires, Cortázar worked for the publishing group Cámara Argentina del Libro (1946-1948), completed a translation degree in record time, and worked as a public translator (1948-1951). During these years his short stories "Casa tomada" and "Lejana" appeared in Jorge Luis Borges' literary magazine Los Anales de Buenos Aires, and he published a theoretical work, Teoría del túnel (1947). The novel El examen, written in 1950, was initially rejected by the publisher and only released posthumously in 1986. In 1951 Cortázar published the short story collection Bestiario and began his voluntary exile from Argentina by moving to Paris. In the French capital Cortázar quickly became a translator for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a position he would hold for the rest of his life.

On August 23, 1953, Cortázar married fellow Argentine translator Aurora Bernárdez. Although they divorced after twenty years, the two remained close friends. His second marriage was to Canadian writer Carol Dunlop with whom he collaborated on Los autonautas de la cosmopista: O, un viaje atemporal París-Marsella (1983), a surrealistic account of their month-long journey on the French highway.

Cortázar belonged to the "boom" generation of Latin American writers who broke new ground with their work during the 1950s and 1960s. He is perhaps most well known for the highly experimental novel Rayuela (1963) and the socio-politically based Libro de Manuel (1973). His literary production included other novels—Los premios [1960], 62: Modelo para armar [1968] and Un tal Lucas [1979]), poetry (Los reyes [1949], Pameos y meopas [1971], and Salvo el crepúsculo [1984]) and essays ( La casilla de los Morelli [1973], Argentina: Años de almabradas culturales [1984] and Nicaragua: Tan violentamente dulce [1983]—but predominately consisted of short stories: Final del juego [1950], Las armas secretas [1959], Historias del cronopios y de famas [1962], Todos los fuegos el fuego [1966], Alguien que anda por ahí y otros relatos [1977], and Queremos tanto a Glenda [1980].

Cortázar was also a frequent traveler and advocate of human rights. He was particularly concerned about the torture of political prisoners and the repressive rule of dictators in Latin America. A socialist, he supported both the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions. Cortázar promoted his views through speaking engagements and political essays. He also made several trips to the United States and participated in conferences at University of California, Berkeley (1980).

Cortázar died of leukemia and heart disease on February 12, 1984. He was buried in Montparnassee Cemetery alongside Carol Dunlop.

The collection consists primarily of Cortázar's prose and poetry manuscripts, with the poetry constituting the largest portion of the collection and some of his very early writings as evidenced by the notebook written at the age of 12 (1927). The prose includes both fiction and non-fiction writings, Spanish translations of Jean Cocteau's poetry (1947?) and lecture notes from two courses, one at Universidad de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina (1945), and the other at University of California, Berkeley (1980). These papers reflect Cortázar's multilingualism; for example, the title is not always indicative of the content language. While most of the manuscripts are unpublished, there exist several works (complete unless otherwise indicated) that were published, such as Adiós, Robinson y otras piezas breves (1995) [two short plays], Los autonautas de la cosmopista: O, un viaje atemporal París- Marsella (1983), Diario de Andrés Fava (1995), El examen (1986), Pameos y meopas (1971) [selected poems], Rayuela (1963) [notes and short manuscript excerpts], and Teoría del túnel (1947).

Futhermore, the papers contain a small selection of quotations that Cortázar collected from the works of others; notebooks that include an assortment of prose, poetry and notes; and a small selection of correspondence.

The majority of material in this collection is undated. Unless otherwise indicated, all manuscripts described in the contents list are one page in length.

This collection was purchased from the author's former wife in 2001.

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This collection was processed by Karla Vecchia in 2002 and updated by her in 2004. Finding aid written by Karla Vecchia in 2002.

Some of the manuscripts and notes found in draft form in the collection came to print in the following publications: Adiós, Robinson y otras piezas breves (Buenos Aires: Alfaguara, 1995), Los autonautas de la cosmopista: O, un viaje atemporal París-Marsella (Buenos Aires: Muchnik, 1983), Diario de Andrés Fava (Buenos Aires: Alfaguara, 1995), El examen (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, Sudamericana/Planeta, 1986), Pameos y meopas (Barcelona: OCNOS, Editorial Llibres de Sinera, 1971), Rayuela (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1963) and Teoría del túnel (1947).

No appraisal information is available.

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Preferred Citation

Citations should be as follows: Julio Cortázar Papers, Series #, Box #. Used by permission of the Princeton University Library.

Publisher

Manuscripts Division

Finding aids author

Karla Vecchia

Date

2005

Creator

Cortázar, Julio

Subject

Exiles' writings, Argentine -- France -- Paris -- 20th century

French poetry—20th century—Translations into Spanish

Latin American fiction -- 20th century

Latin American literature -- 20th century

Latin American poetry -- 20th century

Lectures and lecturing -- 20th century

Novelists, Argentine -- 20th century -- Correspondence

Novelists, Argentine -- 20th century -- Manuscripts

Novelists, Argentine -- 20th century -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc

Poets, Argentine -- 20th century -- Manuscripts

Poets, Argentine -- 20th century -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc

Language

English

Form

Fiction

Manuscripts

Notebooks

Poems