Georgie & Elsa : Jorge Luis Borges and his wife the untold story / Norman Thomas Di Giovanni.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Di Giovanni, Norman Thomas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Borges, Jorge Luis, 1899-1986.

Borges, Jorge Luis.

Astete Millán, Elsa.

Authors, Argentine--20th century--Biography.

Authors, Argentine.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

259 pages, 8 pages of unnumbered pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Georgie and Elsa

Place of Publication:

London The Friday Project, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2014.

Summary:

A biography of Borges, by his translator. Jorge Luis Borges, known as Georgie to his friends, married Elsa Astete Millan in 1967. Borges was sixty-eight years old at the time of the wedding; Elsa, a widow, with a son in his twenties, was eleven years younger. It proved to be a tempestuous and eventful marriage that would leave an indelible mark on the remainder of Borges' life, but their relationship has been largely glossed over by previous biographers. This is because the one person who knew all the details has refused to speak about it. Until now. Norman Thomas di Giovanni worked with Borges in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Buenos Aires from late 1967 to 1972 and thereafter sporadically until Borges's death in 1986. During their first period together di Giovanni spent more time with the couple than did almost anyone else. He was privy to the private side of their relationship and to its sudden decline. It was di Giovanni who helped the demoralized Borges by organizing and arranging his divorce and at the same time rescuing his library and smuggling him out of Buenos Aires to avoid the wrath of Elsa and her lawyers. The book is based on the author's extensive collection of original material in the form of diaries, notebooks, letters, manuscripts, and photographs, most of which has never before been seen. It provides a unique insight into one of the few true geniuses of literature.

Contents:

1 Celebrating the Marriage 13

2 A History of the Romance 15

3 Off on the Wrong Foot 29

4 The Norton Lectureship 35

5 Meeting Borges and Setting Out with a Master 41

6 Georgie's Mystery, Elsa's Bombshell 49

7 A Visitor and a Yard of Ale 53

8 Vietnam, Olga, and Harvard Square 59

9 Borges on Tour 65

10 Invitations and Goodbyes 71

11 Interregnum 75

12 Arrival 85

13 Settling In 93

14 The Recoleta 101

15 Cracks in the Façade 117

16 Oklahoma and the Fur Coat 127

17 Hobnobbing with the Rockefellers 137

18 New York and the Fur Coat 143

19 Buenos Aires and the Fur Coat 145

20 Silent Sufferer 161

21 An Aside 169

22 The Breaking Point 173

23 The Reckoning 191

24 Amongst the Lawyers 199

25 The Night of the Oxford Martyrs 207

26 Escape to Córdoba 215

27 The Mosquito and the Judge 223

28 The Salem Mystery Solved 239

29 Return to Maipú 239

30 Looking Back 245.

ISBN:

9780007524372

0007524374

OCLC:

889545306