This book aims to broaden Borgesian scholarship by presenting the ignored and suppressed juvenilia, 1919-1923-the poetry, essays, manifestos and criticism-of a "literary genius" who, two decades later, would become one of the twentieth century's most celebrated authors. Borges aficionados, upon reading this book, will have to accept that the introverted, half-blind, erudite author of
Ficciones (1944) and
El Aleph (1949) was once a young, passionate, aspiring ultraísta poet reveling in the streets of Madrid with comrades and brothers, rebellious and impulsive, conspiring to direct the course of Spain's poetic consciousness. Reproduced within these covers you will see the early works Borges published in avant-garde magazines that give a glimpse of the twenty-one-year-old posting manifestos on walls and café windows, reciting poems out loud in cafés, engaging in nightly literary discussions, wandering the echoing bannered streets, tipsy and boisterous, declaring Ultraísmo the new and Dario's Modernismo the old.
A secondary purpose of this book is to explore the phenomenon of fiction writers such as Borges who began their career writing poetry but shifted to prose fiction. You will learn how Borges achieved the "overlap" of his poetry with his pseudo-essays and literary criticism to create the unique narratives for which he is beloved. Also included are plates showing covers of the magazines of the 1920s in which Borges published, all in an effort to bring you as close as possible to the spirit and age of Vanguardismo-the Modern age of literature.
