Considered one of the greatest Spanish-language writers of the twentieth century, Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) excelled as a short story writer, but was equally famous for his essays and poetry. In his own way, Borges belonged to three centuries: the nineteenth in which he was born; the twentieth during which he lived and prodigiously wrote; and the twenty-first, an on-line virtual era of computer screens and webs which he did not live to see but anticipated more than once in his fiction.

The Colección Jorge Luis Borges of the Fundación San Telmo, Buenos Aires, which hosts the largest existing collection of Borges materials, is proud to present an exhibition of its treasures that will travel the United States during the next two years.

Borges: The Time Machine/La Máquina del Tiempo will feature books from Borges' personal library, numerous manuscripts and letters, newspapers and periodicals, photographs from his family album, Borges portraits by famous photographers, and personal belongings which are presented to the public for the first time.

The exhibition labels will be in both English and Spanish, as will the text of the 28-page catalog. The illustrated catalog includes original contributions by Juan José Saer, one of the most important contemporary writers from Argentina, and by Prof. Efrain Kristal, of UCLA.

The exhibition is curated by Nicolás Helft, Director of the San Telmo Foundation and Argentine writer Alan Pauls. It is divided into five sections, each of which corresponds to a decisive sphere in Borges's life and works: arms and letters; the experience of the avant garde; the controversies and polemics in which he participated; the relationship between his writings and the media; and the metaphor of the universe as a library. These five sections -- five "stops" on a Borgesian tour -- shape the curatorial aspects of the exhibit. They bring to light some of the Argentine writer's most characteristic objects, but also materials representative of a less daunting, more accessible and intimate Borges, a side not always visible in sophisticated academic studies of his writings.

Using these "chapters" to structure the exhibition, the curators intend to make it accessible both to the general public, and to scholars and specialists, who will find an analysis of Borges' thoughts on the issues of each chapter and will see rare originals which have never been exhibited before.

The exhibition will be open to the public without charge, Monday - Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm, 5 December 2001 - 9 February 2002, except 24-26 December 2001, and 1 January 2002, when the Club is closed.

A symposium on Borges, featuring talks by scholars from Johns Hopkins University, will be held at the Grolier Club, Monday, January 21, 2002. See below for more details.

 For more information visit the website of the Fundación San Telmo.

Symposium

BORGES:

To kick off Bibliography Week 2002, the Grolier Club will host lectures by two scholars on the work of Jorge Luis Borges.

RICHARD A. MACKSEY, scholar and noted book-collector, will give a talk entitled "By Literature Possessed: Borges, Bibliography, and the Paratext," in which he will examine the array of fictional and factual bibliographies listed in Borges' writings.

Richard A. Macksey is an award-winning teacher who has been a Johns Hopkins faculty member since 1958. Co-founder of the Hopkins Humanities Center, he teaches comparative literature, critical theory, and film studies. He also holds joint appointments in the Writing Seminars and in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology department. Dr. Macksey, who reads and writes in six languages, is best known for the breadth of his scholarship and teaching. He has introduced to the Johns Hopkins curriculum many new courses. He has published poetry, fiction, translations, and a wide spectrum of academic works, and he is a recipient of the Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award (having received both his B.A. and Ph.D. from Hopkins in 1954 and 1957, respectively). In appreciation of Dr. Macksey's outstanding teaching, former students have endowed the Richard A. Macksey professorship, which is currently held in the Hopkins Writing Seminars by Alice McDermott, winner of the 1998 National Book Award for her novel Charming Billy.

JOHN T. IRWIN, author of The Mystery to a Solution -- Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), will speak on "Borges and Detective Fiction," and then present a video of Borges' visit to Johns Hopkins in 1983. At the end of the presentation, Dr. Irwin will sign copies of his book on Poe and Borges, which will be available for purchase. This book won the Phi Beta Kappa Society's 1994 Christian Gauss Prize for best book in the humanities, and also the Modern Language Association's 1994 Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies for best book in comparative literature.

John T. Irwin is Decker Professor of the Humanities and former chairman of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Holding a joint appointment in the Writing Seminars and the English department, he specializes in American Literature and Comparative Modern Literature. A former editor of the Georgia Review, he now edits the series "Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction" for the Johns Hopkins University Press. His books of criticism include Doubling and Incest / Repetition and Revenge : A Speculative Reading of Faulkner (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975); American Hieroglyphics: The Symbol of the Egyptian Hieroglyphics in the American Renaissance (Yale University Press, 1980); and The Mystery to a Solution -- Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994). His books of poetry (published under the pen name John Bricuth) include The Heisenberg Variations (University of Georgia Press, 1976) and Just Let Me Say This About That (Overlook Press, 1998). He is presently completing a long, book-length poem called Just As Long As It's Big and a book of criticism on hardboiled detective fiction and film-noire. Dr. Irwin is also working on a book of criticism on the poet Hart Crane.

A reception will follow the talks.