Leopoldo Lugones (Biography)

Biography of Leopoldo Lugones written by William Belmont Parker

From Argentines of to-day ~ The Hispanic Society of America, 1920

LEOPOLDO LUGONES

Author; poet.

‎ Leopoldo Lugones, the son of Santiago Lugones and Custodia Argüello, was born on the thirteenth of June, 1874, in the village of Río Seco, Provincia of Córdoba. There, in the city of Córdoba, he had his primary education and entered the Colegio Nacional where he continued until the fourth year.

‎ He was only sixteen years old when, irresistibly attracted to the literary career which he then thought could be won in journalism, he entered the staff of the daily paper El Interior, of Córdoba -edited by Doctor Figueroa Alcorta who some years later was to be the President of Argentina- and there made so conspicuous a success from the very first, that his colleagues predicted his future triumphs.

‎ The provincial environment was, however, too narrow for him, and in 1895, when he was twenty-two years of age and had been active in journalism for six years, he removed to the Capital and joined the staff of El Tiempo.

‎ Two years later he was appointed to an official position in the Postal and Telegraph service, where he was prometed to be Inspector and finally Chief Inspector a post which he retained until 1900; from 1900 to 1902 he was Inspector of Secondary and Normal Education and from 1902 to 1904 he was acting General Inspector.

‎ Meantime he was adding to his reputation as a writer of prose and verse which was eagerly read by the public and sought by the publishers of news-papers and magazines.

‎ In 1906 he made his first voyage to Europe, visiting France, Germany, Sweden and Norway. Again in 1911 he left for Europe and established his residence in Paris, where during the first months of 1914 he founded La Revue Sudamericaine a periodical which from its first number won much popular success. It contained articles by some of the best-known writers of France among them the former Prime Minister, M. Georges Clemenceau. The publication only reached its seventh number before it was interrupted by the Great War. Lugones then returned to Buenos Aires where he joined the distinguished group which made a compaign against German Imperialism and in favor of the Allied Cause in the War.

‎ In 1915 he was appointed Director of the National Library for Teachers, and accomplished much for the good of the institution: when he accepted the post, the Library was visited by 23.000 personas yearly; in 1919 that number was more than doubled. He has also greatly expanded the Children's Section.

‎ During two years, 1915 and 1916, he taught aesthetics in the National University of La Plata and he is a charter member of the National Academy of Sciences of Córdoba.

‎ Sr. Lugones has won a high place in the esteem of his fellow countrymen, among whom he is frequently referred to as a great intellectual force. He has gained a reputation as a poet, a man of science, and an orator. His work in other fields has been that rather of a popularizer than an original thinker, but as a poet he has commanded attention by works which have called forth a world of critical comment. The first of these Las montañas del oro, Buenos Aires, 1897, was the book of a young rebel: it is marked by great force and by equal disregard for rule and tradition, much of it being in effect vers libre; his second book, Los crepúsculos del jardín, 1905 on the other hand, was a collection of delicate and almost dainty verses; his third volume Lunario sentimental, 1909, revealed another phase of the author, for in this he found expression for the spirit of revolt against the city and for the love of the simple and bucolic. All of these aspects of poetry reappeared, more mature and chastened, in his fourth volume, Odas seculares, 1911, in which his powers as a poet are fulley revealed and in which there are poems which merit high praise. His two later volumes El libro fiel, 1915 and El libro de los paisajes, 1917, add no new elements to his artistic attainment.

‎ He has written, in addition to many articles, a long list of books on many subjects. It includes besides the poems abready mentioned: La reforma educacional, a polemic; El imperio jesuítico, a historical essay, 1914; La guerra gaucha, 1905; Las fuerzas extrañas, a cosmological essay, 1906; Piedras liminares, 1910; Prometeo, 1910; Didáctica, 1910; Historia de Sarmiento, 1910; Elogio de Ameghino, 1915; El ejército de la Iliada, 1915; El payador, 1916; Mi beligerancia, a collection of articles on the European War, 1917; La torre de Casandra, more war articles and addresses 1919; Las Industrians de Atenas, 1919.

Works by this author are in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 91 years or less. cs | de | en | eo | es | fr | he | pl | ru | zh

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