Manuel Mujica Láinez Papers

• Introduction
• Biographical Sketch
• Collection Description
• Series Descriptions
• Box/Folder Listing

Introduction

Range of Collection Dates: 1901-1984
Range of Collection Bulk Dates: 1918-1983

Size: 3.25 linear ft. (8 archival boxes)

Languages: The primary language of the collection is Spanish; the chief secondary language is French, but there are also many letters in English and a few letters in Italian.

Provenance: The collection was the property of the author's family until the University purchased the author's professional correspondence in 1997 and family correspondence in 2001.

Restrictions: None.

Photocopying, literary rights, and citation: Single copies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Associate University Librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections. All existing copyright remains in force; no literary rights have been assigned to the Princeton University Library. Citations should be as follows: Manuel Mujica Láinez Papers, Series #, Box #. Used by permission of Princeton University Library.

Biographical Sketch

Mujica Láinez first attained fame as a writer with the publication of two collections of short stories: Aquí vivieron (1949) and Misteriosa Buenos Aires (1951). In the 1950s, Mujica Láinez also achieved recognition for his cycle of novels known as "The Saga of Buenos Aires Society." The novels comprising the cycle are Los idolos, La casa, Los viajeros, and Invitados en El Paraíso. In 1962, Mujica Láinez's novel Bomarzo was first published. This lengthy novel, based on the real-life Prince Pier Francesco Orsini, Duke of Bomarzo who lived in sixteenth-century Italy, is considered by many critics to be an ambitious and imaginative novel, which is quite different in subject matter and style from the Latin American "Boom" novels that were published in the early and mid-1960s.

Bomarzo was set into both a cantata and an opera by the noted Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera; the opera's libretto was written by Mujica Láinez. The opera premiered at the Lisner Auditorium of George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., in 1967; in the same year, it was prohibited from being staged at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Aires.

Other novels which Mujica Láinez has written include El unicornio, published in English as The Wandering Unicorn, Cecil, Sergio, and Los cisnes. He also wrote biographies which were mostly of famous Argentine gauchos, art criticism, and travel narratives (both of life in Buenos Aires and of travels in Europe). His Obras completas [complete works] were published by Editorial Sudamericana of Buenos Aires, in 1978 (Vol. 1) and 1980 (Vol. 2).

Throughout his career, Mujica Láinez was a member of literary societies in Argentina, namely, the "Sociedad Argentina de Letras" (SADE) and "Academia Argentina de Letras." He served as vice-president of SADE from 1950 to 1953, and was elected to membership of the Argentine Academy of Letters in 1956. He was friends with many poets and writers who were active in these groups, such as Ángel Battistessa, C. Cordova Iturburu, and Eduardo González Lanuza. He was also elected to membership in the "Academia Argentina de Bellas Artes" in 1959.

Mujica Láinez was awarded numerous literary prizes for his writings. In 1955, he won the "Gran Premio de Honor de la SADE" and also the Second National Prize for Literature (Argentina) for his novel La casa, published in 1954. In 1963, he won Argentina's First National Prize of Literature, and in 1964 he won the John F. Kennedy Prize for Bomarzo.

Mujica Láinez was married to Ana de Alvear ["Anita"], in 1936; they had three children Diego (b. 1937), Ana (b. 1939), and Manuel (b. 1941). He lived in Buenos Aires until December 1969, when he left Buenos Aires for the smaller city of Córdoba, where he bought and lived in an old, long-abandoned house called "El Paraíso" [Paradise]. Here, he wrote and entertained many writers and friends until his death on April 21, 1984.

Major Published Books

    Novels
    Don Galaz de Buenos Aires ([Buenos Aires], 1938)
    Los ídolos (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1953)
    La casa (Sudamericana, 1954, reprinted 1984)
    Los viajeros (Sudamericana, 1955, repr. 1984)
    Invitados en El Paraíso (Sudamericana, 1957)
    Bomarzo (Sudamericana, 1962), repr. 1979), English translation by Gregory Rabassa published under the same title, Simon & Schuster, 1969.
    El unicornio (Sudamericana, 1965), English translation by Mary Fitton published as The Wandering Unicorn, Taplinger, 1982
    Cecil (Sudamericana, 1972)
    Sergio (Sudamericana, 1976)
    El escarabajo (Sudamericana, 1982)

    Biographies
    Miguel Cané (padre) un romántico porteño (Buenos Aires: C.E.P.A., 1942)
    Vida de Aniceto el Gallo (Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1943)
    Vida de Anastasio el Pollo (Emecé, 1948)

    Other
    Aquí vivieron (Sudamericana, 1949), short stories
    Misteriosa Buenos Aires (Sudamericana, 1951), short stories
    Hector Basaldúa (Buenos Aires, 1956), essay on Argentine artist
    Bomarzo: an opera in two acts and fifteen scenes. Music by Alberto Ginastera; libretto by M. Mujica Láinez. Trans. by Hobart A. Spalding. (New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1967)
    Nuestro Buenos Aires, photographs by Aldo Sessa (bilingual edition in Spanish and English, Tucumán, Argentina, 1982)
    Cartas de Manuel Mujica Láinez, collected, and with an introduction by Oscar Monesterolo (Sudamericana, 1984)

Collection Description

Scope Note

The Manuel Mujica Láinez Papers consists of working and personal papers of the Argentine novelist, short story writer, biographer, and essayist Manuel Mujica Láinez. The papers are almost equally divided between correspondence he received from Argentine and Spanish writers (1927-1984) and family correspondence (1901-1984). But there are also a few manuscripts by Mujica Láinez, several poems (some dedicated to Mujica Láinez) and non-fiction manuscripts by others, and manuscripts of conference papers. The strength of the collection is the documentation of Mujica Láinez's literary career, beginning with a letter received from poet Alfonsina Storni in 1927 and continuing with many letters acknowledging the publication and critical reception of Mujica Láinez's writings. The critical response to his novel Bomarzo, first published in 1962, and public controversy over the prohibition of staging the opera Bomarzo at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1967, are particularly well-documented in the letters received by the author.

Correspondents represented in the collection include many writers who have figured prominently in twentieth-century Argentine literature, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Victoria Ocampo, Silvina Ocampo, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Bullrich, Enrique Larreta, Eduardo Mallea, and Ricardo Rojas. In addition to novelists, Mujica Láinez corresponded with many poets and critics, including Gabriela Mistral, Bernardo Canal Feijóo, Enrique Pezzoni, Eduardo González Lanuza, Alejandra Pizarnik, Olga Orozco, Alberto Girri, and Alberto Manguel. European writers represented in the collection include Spanish authors Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Américo Castro, Luis Antonio de Villena, and Guillermo Carnero, French biographer André Maurois, novelist Joseph Kessel, and Swiss author Denis de Rougemont.

The few manuscripts by Mujica Láinez include an autograph essay on Victoria Ocampo, "Victoria Argentina," which was written for a commission formed to honor her ("Comisión de Homenaje a Victoria Ocampo"), and a draft speech by Mujica Láinez, honoring Victoria Ocampo in December 1965. The manuscripts written by others include two poems by Alberto Girri, and poems (one each) by Luis Antonio de Villena and Oscar Hermes de Villordo. Among the letters sent to Mujica Láinez, there are two letters about the suicides of two well-known Argentine poets: one, by Alberto Gerchunoff on Leopoldo Lugones' death in 1938; and the other, by Alberto Manguel on Alejandra Pizarnik's death in 1972.

The family correspondence includes both letters written by and to Mujica Láinez, and letters written between other family members. (To assist with identification of other family members, their relationship to Mujica Láinez is included in brackets after their names. Refer also to the family tree in the "Biographical Sketch" section.) Mujica Láinez corresponded extensively with Ana de Alvear de Mujica Láinez ["Anita"] [wife], Lucía Láinez de Mujica Farías ["Chía"] [mother], Ana Mujica [daughter], and Justa Varela de Láinez ["Lala"] [grandmother]. A large portion of the correspondence of the other family members consists of letters between Lucía and Manuel Mujica Farías [father], and letters between Lucía, Justa, Ana María Láinez ["Anamama," "Viuda"] [aunt], Josefina Láinez ["Pepa," "Pepita," "Mamachica"] [aunt], Justita Láinez ["Tita," "Tina," "Vinagera"] [aunt], and Martha Láinez ["Nenatony"] [aunt].

Arrangement

The collection has been arranged in the following series: I. Letters from Authors to Manuel Mujica Láinez, II. Family Correspondence-A. Manuel Mujica Láinez, B. Other Family Members.

Added Entries

The following added entries have been assigned to this collection to highlight significant sources (other than the main entry), subjects, and forms of the collection's materials. Where possible, Library of Congress Subject Headings have been used, and the forms of names reflect international cataloging standards. As a result, all of these entries may be searched in the Department's database (MASC), in the Library's online catalog, and the public card catalog to find other related material.

Subject Headings (in uppercase) / Form Headings (in upper and lower case):

    ARGENTINE LITERATURE--20TH CENTURY
    BOMARZO / MANUEL MUJICA LÁINEZ
    Critics--Argentina--20th century--Correspondence
    Critics--Argentina--20th century--Manuscripts
    Critics--Spain--20th century--Correspondence
    MUJICA LÁINEZ FAMILY
    Novelists, Argentine--20th century--Correspondence
    Poets, Argentine--20th century--Correspondence
    Poets, Argentine--20th century--Manuscripts
    Poets, Spanish--20th century--Correspondence
    SPANISH AMERICAN LITERATURE--20TH CENTURY

Series Descriptions

Box/Folder Listing