Macedonio Fernández was born on June 1, 1874, and died on February 10, 1952. He was an Argentine writer, humorist, and thinker. He wrote novels, stories, poetry, articles, and other works that are hard to categorize. He taught and inspired Jorge Luis Borges and other important Argentine writers. Letters he wrote with Borges over 17 years were published in 2000. Some of his poems include "Creía yo" ("I believed").

Life

Macedonio, like Uruguay's Felisberto Hernández, is often referred to by his first name only. He was the son of Macedonio Fernández, a farmer and military officer, and Rosa del Mazo Aguilar Ramos. In 1887, he enrolled in the Argentine Colegio Nacional Central. He is believed to be a descendant of the Macedonio family from Naples, Italy, who claimed to be related to the Macedonian dynasty of ancient Rome and Philip II of ancient Macedonia.

Between 1891 and 1892, as a university student, he published a series of critical essays on customs and manners in El Progreso, a newspaper. These essays were later included in a book called Papeles antiguos. Like his close friend Jorge Guillermo Borges (father of Jorge Luis Borges), he was interested in psychology and the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

In 1897, he received a degree as a doctor of jurisprudence from the law school at the University of Buenos Aires. During this time, he wrote for La Montaña, a socialist newspaper edited by Leopoldo Lugones and José Ingenieros. He was a personal friend of Juan B. Justo, a physician, journalist, politician, and writer, and they exchanged letters. In 1898, he joined the bar, and in 1899, he married Elena de Obieta. Together, they had four children: Macedonio, Adolfo, Maite, and one other child.

In 1904, he published some poems in a magazine called Martín Fierro (not the more famous magazine of the same name published later). In 1910, he became a public prosecutor in the Juzgado Letrado de Posadas, a position he held for several years.

His wife died in 1920, and their children were cared for by grandparents and aunts. Macedonio left his career as a lawyer. When the Borges family returned from Europe in 1921, he reconnected with his old friend Jorge Guillermo Borges and also began a friendship with Jorge Luis Borges, who was then a young ultraist poet.

In 1928, he published No toda es vigilia la de los ojos abiertos at the request of Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz and Leopoldo Marechal. The next year, he published Papeles de Recienvenido. In 1938, he published Novela de la Eterna and la Niña del dolor, la "Dulce-persona" de un amor que no fue sabido, which was an early version of Museo de la Novela de la Eterna (published after his death in 1967). In 1941, he published Una novela que comienza in Chile, and in 1944, he released a new edition of Papeles de Recienvenido.

In 1947, Macedonio moved into the home of his son Adolfo de Obieta, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Macedonio and Borges

Macedonio was the most important Argentine teacher and influence on Jorge Luis Borges. However, the relationship between the two writers was more complicated than Borges or others claimed. In his later years, Borges said he had copied Macedonio’s work “to the point of plagiarism” during his youth. At the same time, Borges claimed Macedonio had no real literary talent or importance, reinforcing the idea that Macedonio was like a local Socratic philosopher, unique to Argentina and part of an Argentine myth.

Recent studies by Ana Camblong, Julio Prieto, Daniel Attala, and Todd S. Garth show that Macedonio’s influence on Borges was much greater and longer-lasting than Borges admitted. Many key ideas in Borges’ stories came directly from Macedonio. These include questions about space and time, the blurring of dreams and waking life, the unreliability of memory, the idea that personal identity is unclear, the belief that originality does not exist and that texts are copies of older ones, and the mixing of roles like author, reader, and editor.

These influences also appear in themes. For example, both writers explored fictional worlds that invade the real world (Borges’ “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” and Macedonio’s plan to turn Buenos Aires into a novel). They also wrote about immigrant women navigating cities on their own (Borges’ “Emma Zunz” and Macedonio’s “Adriana Buenos Aires”). Both were inspired by philosophers like Schopenhauer and Bergson, but they also developed many of their own ideas together in the 1920s. Macedonio appears in Borges’ story “Dialogue about a Dialogue,” where they discuss the immortality of the soul.

Borges and Macedonio’s relationship began in 1921, when Borges returned to Buenos Aires after living in Switzerland and Europe. Borges’ father, Jorge Guillermo Borges Haslam, had been close to Macedonio and studied law with him. Before 1921, Macedonio married, started a law practice, and raised a family. This changed when his wife, Elena de Obieta, died suddenly in 1920. After this, Macedonio closed his law practice, left his home, and began writing and philosophizing.

Borges and others in the “generación martinfierrista” looked to Macedonio as a mentor who could support the new Buenos Aires avant-garde and challenge Leopoldo Lugones, a leader of an earlier artistic movement. Macedonio contributed to literary groups like the ultraísta movement and “Florida” group. Borges attended Macedonio’s private gatherings in Buenos Aires and helped him run satirical presidential campaigns in 1921 and 1927. Borges also encouraged Macedonio to publish his book No toda es vigilia la de los ojos abiertos in 1926.

The relationship between Borges and Macedonio began to worsen around 1927 or 1928, as letters show a disagreement. This was also when Borges ended his support for the avant-garde and declared the end of Argentine ultraísmo, leading to the shutdown of the magazine Martín Fierro. From 1927 onward, Borges wrote and promoted his famous short stories, like “Hombre de la esquina rosada,” and rejected his earlier work. Some sources suggest Borges saw his early writings as harmful, especially in the hands of nationalists. Many of Borges’ stories that show Macedonio’s influence warn against ideas Macedonio supported, such as extreme relativism and the value of hidden, intellectual lives over ordinary ones.

Works

• No toda es vigilia la de los ojos abiertos; arreglo de papeles que dejó un personaje de novela creado por el arte, Deunamor el no existente caballero, el estudioso de su esperanza (1928)
• Una novela que comienza (1941)
• Poemas, with a prologue by Natalicio González. México, Guarania, 1953.
• Papeles de Recienvenido. Continuación de la nada (1944); Papeles de recienvenido y continuación de la nada (1989)
• Museo de la novela de la eterna (1967); (1995) ISBN 84-376-1379-5; (1982) ISBN 84-660-0090-9; ISBN 84-660-0089-5 (pbk.)
• No toda es vigilia la de los ojos abiertos y otros escritos. Advertencia de Adolfo de Obieta. Buenos Aires, CEAL, 1967.
• Cuadernos de todo y nada. Buenos Aires, Corregidor, 1972. 2a. ed. 1990.
• Manera de una psique sin cuerpo (1973) ISBN 84-7223-542-4
• Obras completas (1974-1995) ISBN 950-05-0584-3 Adriana Buenos Aires: última novela mala. Buenos Aires, Corregidor, 1974 (Obras completas, vol. V; Adolfo de Obieta, editor); (1998) ISBN 84-8307-127-4 Teorías, Buenos Aires, Corregidor, 1974 (Obras completas, vol. III; Adolfo de Obieta, editor); (1990) ISBN 950-05-0584-3 Museo de la Novela de la Eterna; primera novela buena. Buenos Aires, Corregidor, 1975 (Obras completas, vol. VI; Adolfo de Obieta, editor)
• Relato: cuentos, poemas y misceláneas (1987)
• Poesías completas (1991) ISBN 84-7522-265-X
• Todo y nada (1995)
• Textos selectos (1999) ISBN 950-05-1181-9
• Macedonio: memorias errantes (1999) ISBN 978-98797654-0-1

• Macedonio: selected writings in translation edited by Jo Anne Engelbert, Latitudes Press 1984, ISBN 978-9995878801.
• The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel) translated by Margaret Schwartz (2010) published by Open Letter Books

• Epistolario. Buenos Aires, Corregidor, 1976. (Obras completas, vol. II, Alicia Borinsky, editor).
• Correspondencia, 1922-1939: crónica de una amistad with Jorge Luis Borges (2000) ISBN 950-05-1258-0