New York Celebrates Jorge Luis Borges' First Book

The first book of Jorge Luis Borges -- a volume of poetry entitled "Fervor de Buenos Aires" -- has been reissued in honor of the 90th anniversary of its publication. An event was held on Friday at the Instituto Cervantes, a Spanish cultural institute in New York, to mark the volume's re-release as a coffee table book with 80 color illustrations by Pablo Racioppi, a Buenos Aires artist. "Fervor de Buenos Aires," which was first published in 1923, is part of the collection "Poetas y ciudades" ("Poets And Cities") which will include works by Federica Lorca ("Poeta en Nueva York"), Juan Ramón Jiménez ("Diario de un poeta recién casado") and Vicente Aleixandre ("Sombra de un paraíso"). The event at the Cervantes Institute is one stop of a tour embarked upon by Borges' widow, María Kodama, and Pedro Tabernero, who edited the reissue. The tour will also pass through Madrid and Buenos Aires.

Borges (1899-1986), was educated in Europe and buried is Switzerland, but he lived most of his adult life in Buenos Aires, his city of birth. "Fervor de Buenos Aires," which was written just after Borges returned from Europe, still a young man, is very much a collection about the rediscovery of his native city, which at the time was the biggest city in Latin America, and a sense of identification with it which may have been renewed after his time away.

The rereleased volume "has been conceived with the world of illustration in mind, and together with an important series of drawings constitutes a literary work brought to the visual dimension, an element which is as yet unpublished," editor Pedro Tablernero told MasCultura.

Some of the poems in the collection were tinkered with the second time that "Fervor de Buenos Aires" was published, in 1969, when Borges had risen to fame. The University of Iowa has the two somewhat distinct versions of the opening poem, "Las calles" ("The Streets"), with the differences between them highlighted.

The book launch in New York, which also featured CUNY professor Lía Schwartz as a speaker, came just before the art exhibition "Xul Solar and Jorge Luis Borges: The Art of Friendship" began running at the Americas Society. The exhibition, which runs from April 18 - July 20, will put on show watercolors by mystic artist Xul Solar (1887-1963) -- the professional name of Oscar Schulz Solari -- and manuscripts, photographs and other documents which give a glimpse into his friendship and intellectual camaraderie with Borges.