Isabel Fraire (December 8, 1931 – April 5, 2015), also known as Isabel Fraire Benson, was a Mexican writer, poet, translator and literary critic. She was one of the prominent members of her generation of literary figures in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Biography

Born on December 8, 1931, in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, of an American mother and a Mexican father, Isabel Fraire studied philosophy and letters at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where she later became a professor of Literature. She served as a member of the editorial board of the ''Revista Mexicana de Literatura''. The book named ''Only This Light'', published in 1969 is considered to be her first book of poems, though her earliest poems appeared in 1959 as ''15 Poems of Isabel Fraire''. Her poems were highly “celebrated for its exquisite images of natural beauty.” As a bilingual since her childhood, she translated the works of a number of well-known literary critics including Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot,

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E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

and

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

. Her translations from English to Spanish on the literary works of renowned scholars appeared in many popular Latin American journals and anthologies. She also extensively wrote critical essays about Latin American art and literature. She was the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship awarded in 1973. In 1978, she also received the

Xavier Villaurrutia Award The Xavier Villaurrutia Award (Premio Xavier Villaurrutia) is a prestigious literary prize given in Mexico, to a Latin American writer published in Mexico. Founded in 1955, it was named in memory of Xavier Villaurrutia. Multiple awards have been gi ...

for her third collection of poetry, ''Poems in the Lap of Death'' (1977). She was 84 years old when she died in Mexico City, Mexico, on April 5, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraire, Isabel 1931 births 2015 deaths Mexican literary critics Mexican women literary critics Mexican essayists Mexican women essayists Mexican women novelists Writers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican novelists 20th-century Mexican women writers