Victoria Ocampo Aguirre (
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, April 7, 1890 – Buenos Aires, January 27, 1979) was an
ArgentineArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
intellectual, described by
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , best known as Jorge Luis Borges, was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and...
as
la mujer más argentina ("the most Argentine woman"). Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the magazine
Sur, she was also a writer and critic in her own right.
She was born in
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and was educated at home by a French governess.
Victoria Ocampo Aguirre (
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, April 7, 1890 – Buenos Aires, January 27, 1979) was an
ArgentineArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
intellectual, described by
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , best known as Jorge Luis Borges, was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and...
as
la mujer más argentina ("the most Argentine woman"). Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the magazine
Sur, she was also a writer and critic in her own right.
She was born in
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and was educated at home by a French governess. She would later write, "the alphabet-book in which I learned to read was French, as was the hand that taught me to draw those first letters."
http://www.villaocampo.org/ing/historico/victoria.htm
She is sometimes said to have attended the
SorbonneThe historic University of Paris was founded in the mid 12th century, likely between 1160 and 1170 , In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous universities...
: on page 39 of her biography of VO, Doris Meyer states that, during the family's 1906-1907 trip to Paris, the same during which she was etched by
HelleuPaul César Helleu was a French artist best known for his portraits of many of the most famous and beautiful women of his time including the Duchess of Marlborough, the Countess of Greffulhe, the Marchesa Casati and Belle da Costa Greene, librarian to J. P...
, the Ocampos allowed 17-year-old Victoria, "well-chaperoned", to audit some lectures at the Sorbonne and at the
Collège de FranceThe Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Ecoles...
. She remembered particularly enjoying
Henri BergsonHenri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century.- Overview :...
's lectures at the latter. She was not, of course, ever matriculated at either; her very old, traditional and rich family frowned on formal education for females, and so Victoria had none.
In 1912 Ocampo married Bernando de Estrada (aka Monaco Estrada). The marriage was not happy, and in 1920, the couple separated, and Ocampo began a 13-year affair with her husband's cousin Julián Martinez, a diplomat.
http://www.villaocampo.org
In Buenos Aires, she was a lynchpin of the intellectual scene of the 1920s and '30s. Her first book, written in French, was
De Francesca à Beatrice (1923?), a commentary on
DanteDurante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.In...
's Divine Comedy; other works include
Domingos en Hyde Park;
El HamletThe Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father, the King, and then...
de Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson...
;
Emily BrontëEmily Jane Brontë was an English novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. Emily was the second eldest of the three surviving Brontë sisters, between Charlotte and Anne...
(Terra incógnita); a series called
Testimonios (ten volumes);
Virginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English novelist, essayist, epistler, publisher, feminist, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, Orlando y Cía;
San IsidroIsidro and Ysidro are Spanish forms of the personal name Isidore. San Isidro or San Ysidro may refer to:-People:* Agot Isidro , Filipina actress...
;
338171 T.E. (Lawrence of Arabia) (a biography of
T. E. LawrenceLieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence CB, DSO , known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British military officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt of 1916–18...
) and a posthumously published autobiography. There is also an edited book of dialogues between Ocampo and Borges.
Perhaps of greater significance than her own writing, she was founder (1931) and publisher of the Argentine magazine
Sur, the most important literary magazine of its time in
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. Among the writers published in
Sur were
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , best known as Jorge Luis Borges, was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and...
,
Ernesto SabatoErnesto Sabato is an Argentine writer. He was born in Rojas, a tiny town in the Province of Buenos Aires. Sabato began his studies at the Colegio Nacional de La Plata. He then read physics at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, where he earned a Ph.D. He then attended the Sorbonne in Paris and...
,
Adolfo Bioy CasaresAdolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentine fiction writer.Bioy Casares was born in Buenos Aires, the grandson of a wealthy landowner and dairy processor, and the descendant of Patrick Lynch, a successful Irish emigrant. Bioy's parents were keen alphabet enthusiasts, which explains their choice of his...
,
Julio CortázarJulio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine author of novels and short stories...
,
José Ortega y GassetJosé Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish liberal philosopher working at the beginning of the 20th century while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism and dictatorship.-Biography:...
,
Manuel PeyrouManuel Peyrou was an Argentine writer and scientist. His satire El estruendo de las rosas was translated into English in 1972 as Thunder of Roses: A Detective Novel....
,
Albert CamusAlbert Camus was a French author, philosopher, and journalist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He is often cited as a proponent of existentialism , but Camus himself refused this particular label...
,
Enrique Anderson ImbertEnrique Anderson Imbert was an Argentine novelist, short-story writer and literary critic.Born in Cordoba, Argentina, Imbert had a long university career both in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he graduated and received his doctorate in philosophy and arts, and in the United States.Imbert is best...
, José Bianco, Santiago Davobe,
Ezequiel Martínez EstradaEzequiel Martínez Estrada was an Argentine writer, poet, essayist, and literary critic. An admired biographer and critic, he was often political in his writings, and was a confirmed anti-Peronist...
,
Pierre Drieu La RochellePierre Eugène Drieu La Rochelle was a French writer of novels, short stories and political essays, who lived and died in Paris...
,
Waldo FrankWaldo Frank was a prolific novelist, historian, literary and social critic. Most well-known for his studies of Spanish and Latin American literature, Frank served as chairman of the First Americans Writers Congress and became the first president of the League of American Writers.-Biography:Frank...
,
Gabriela MistralGabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945...
,
Eduardo MalleaEduardo Mallea was an Argentine essayist, cultural critic, writer and diplomat. In 1931 he became editor of the literary magazine of La Nación.-Work:...
,
Silvina OcampoSilvina Ocampo Aguirre was an Argentine poet and short-fiction writer.Ocampo was born in Buenos Aires, the youngest of the six children of Manuel Ocampo and Ramona Aguirre. She was educated at home by tutors. One of her sisters was Victoria Ocampo, the publisher of the literarily important...
(her younger sister),
Alfonso ReyesAlfonso Reyes Ochoa was a Mexican writer, philosopher, and diplomat.Alfonso Reyes, the son of General Bernardo Reyes, was educated primarily in Mexico City...
, and Enrique Pezzoni.
In 1953, Ocampo was briefly imprisoned for her open opposition to the regime of Juan Domingo Perón. Like many other anti-Peronists, notably including Borges, she was friendly to General
Jorge Rafael VidelaJorge Rafael Videla Redondo was the 43rd President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón...
's
de facto military regime that ruled Argentina in the 1970s; she was made a member of the Argentine Academy of Letters in 1976 (the first woman ever admitted to the Academy; she formally took her seat on June 23, 1977). The "cultural dialog", initiated in 1977 by the
de facto government but organized by
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
, was held in her home, Villa Ocampo, in
San IsidroIsidro and Ysidro are Spanish forms of the personal name Isidore. San Isidro or San Ysidro may refer to:-People:* Agot Isidro , Filipina actress...
,
Buenos Aires ProvinceBuenos Aires Province is the most populous province of Argentina. Though it takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the latter is not part of the provincial territory; Buenos Aires is an autonomous city...
; she eventually donated the house to UNESCO. Personalities like
Igor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of...
,
André MalrauxAndré Malraux DSO was a French author, adventurer and statesman.-Biography:Malraux was born in Paris during 1901, the son of Fernand-Georges Malraux , and Berthe Lamy . His parents separated during 1905 and eventually divorced. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother, Berthe and...
and
Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, he reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
had been her guests there.
Graham GreeneHenry Graham Greene OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
dedicated his 1973 novel
The Honorary ConsulThe Honorary Consul is a British thriller novel by Graham Greene, published in 1973. It was one of the author's favourite works.- Plot summary :...
to her, "with love, and in memory of the many happy weeks I have passed at San Isidro and
Mar del PlataMar del Plata is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the Buenos Aires Province, south of Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata is one of the major fishing ports and the biggest seaside beach resort in Argentina....
".
Victoria Ocampo is buried in
La Recoleta CemeteryLa Recoleta Cemetery is a famous cemetery located in the exclusive Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The layout of the cemetery was designed by the French engineer Próspero Catelin, and was remodeled in 1881, while Torcuato de Alvear was mayor of the city, by the Italian architect...
in Buenos Aires.
External links