Eduardo Mallea (1903-1982) was a diplomat, narrator, essayist and writer from Bahía Blanca, recognized today as one of the main writers of 20th century Argentine literature.
He studied Law for four years at the University of Buenos Aires. During this period he took his first steps in publishing his own writings with works such as Tales for a desperate Englishwoman in 1926 and European Night in 1934.
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His parents, both Argentine, were Narciso Segundo Mallea and Manuela Artiria. His father studied medicine in Buenos Aires and his first years as a doctor were developed in the Benito Juárez y Azul province..
Then he decided to move with his family to Bahía Blanca, where there was much more commercial activity, thanks to the proximity to the capital Buenos Aires. Around 1907, they made a trip to Europe and on their return (1910), Eduardo Mallea was enrolled in an English school.
In 1927 he abandoned his studies in Law to be able to dedicate himself fully to writing, with a job as an editor at the newspaper The nation, where he served for many years as director of the literary supplement.
He was in charge of the position of president in the Argentine Society of Writers (SADE), a job that he carried out together with his role as a diplomat representing Argentina before the United Nations European Office, as plenipotentiary minister..
By 1940 his written work had an orientation towards what he was seeing at the national level. He wrote about the problems of his country, representing people as individuals with weak values, with a social life, focusing especially on the representation of the intangible of the interior..
Eduardo Mallea represented in the vast majority of his works two realities that he wanted to highlight to demonstrate his thinking. He sought to make it notable and to interpret what for him was the spiritual crisis, at the same time in which he wanted to update the narrative to the new currents of content.
A decade after this stage, in 1950, his attention in reference to the style focused on the narrative with short stories, together with the essay. The latter with an emphasis on the philosophical and sociopolitical, thanks to the entire Peronist movement that rejected.
He even came to be named as one of the creators of the urban novel, where he ventured the frustrations of all the reality he faced, thus leaving his work as a testimony of a historical period for his country..
As a result of the medical influence of his father, Eduardo Mallea took the academy as a great reference for his work. Several authors coincide in stating that the presence of encyclopedias and educational guides formed him in reading.
In 1916, when her family returned from their trip to Europe, Mallea began producing her first short stories. In 1920 he had the initiative to publish his first short story The amazon. Then in 1923 the newspaper The nation publishes Soledad Sonata of his authorship.
During his years of university studies, despite having abandoned them, he created the works Tales for a desperate Englishwoman (1926) and European nocturnal (1934), sending a clear and forceful message that cleared up any doubts about his vocation: he was made for writing.
Again, a journalism space opened the doors to show his talent, the Western Magazine made the publication of his novel The anguish (1932).
The city by the river still was published in 1936, and a year later in Buenos Aires what would be one of his most important works was published: Story of an Argentine passion.
Through Story of an Argentine passion, Mallea made her position clear in relation to the social and moral situation her country was going through through her already known means of expression, the essay.
Demonstrating the extent to which it would go, the Sur Magazine published his story Submersion in Buenos Aires, a work that was also published in Deutsche Zuricher Zeitung in Zurich, and also in L'Italia Letteraria of Rome, overwhelmingly transcending the borders of Argentina and consolidating it beyond the air of "literary promise" that it originally possessed..
The cause of Jacobo Uber, lost (short story) raised its internationalization to another level after its publication in Madrid, Spain, through the weekly Devil world ("7 days of the world"). Later it was published in Argentina by the Sur Magazine.
Meanwhile, the short novel The anguish was published in the Western Magazine in Madrid. Thanks to this type of international publications, Mallea began to have a greater impact worldwide as a character in Latin American literature..
His talent came to be appreciated in great houses of study around the world, such as Princeton and Yale universities, where he was the star guest to give lectures to students..
In his honor, the Eduardo Mallea Special Prize is awarded, which recognizes unpublished works on topics related to Argentina or any other country in America in the narrative categories (novel and short story) and essay.
Tales for a desperate Englishwoman, 1926.
Knowledge and expression of Argentina (essay), 1935.
European nightlife. Buenos Aires, 1935.
The city by the river still (short novels), 1936.
Story of an Argentine passion (essay), 1937.
Party in november (novel), 1938.
Meditation on the coast (essay), 1939.
The bay of silence (novel), 1940.
The sackcloth and the purple (essays), 1941.
All greenery will perish (novel), 1941.
Goodbye to Lugones (essay), 1942 (It is included in El sackcloth and purple).
The Eagles (novel), 1943.
Surrounded by a dream ("Poetry memories of a stranger"), 1943.
Return (poetic narration), 1946.
The Link, The Rembrandts, The Rose of Cernobbio (short novels), 1946.
Enemies of the soul (novel), 1950.
Tower (novel), 1951.
Chaves (novel), 1953.
The waiting room (novel), 1953.
Notes from a novelist (essays), 1954.
Sinbad (novel), 1957.
The juniper segment (tragedy in three acts), 1957.
Possession (short novels), 1958.
The human race (narrations), 1959.
The white life (essay), 1960.
The crossings (essays), volume 1 in 1962, volume 2 in 1962.
Representation of fans (theater), 1962.
The inner war (essay), 1963.
Power of the novel (essay), 1965.
Resentment (novels), 1966.
The ice bar (novel), 1967.
Network (narrations and stories), 1968.
The penultimate door (novel), 1969.
Gabriel Andaral (novel), 1971.
Sad skin of the universe (novel), 1971.
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