Julio Torri Maynes (June 27, 1889 in

Saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and highwa ...

Coahuila Coahuila (), formally Coahuila de Zaragoza (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza), is one of the 32 states of Mexico. Coahuila borders the Mexican states of N ...

– May 11, 1970 in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

) was a Mexican writer and teacher who formed part of the

Ateneo de la Juventud Ateneo may refer to: Cultural institutions * Ateneo de la Juventud, a society of Mexican writers, philosophers and intellectuals * Ateneo de Madrid, a private cultural institution located in the capital of Spain * Ateneo de Ponce, a nonprofi ...

(1909–1914). He wrote mainly in the

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

form, although his limited production included

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

and scholarly works as well. Considered one of the best

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

stylists of Latin America, he was admitted to the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua in 1952. His parents were Julio S. Torri and Sofía Maynes de Torri.

Biography

Education

He began his schooling in Colegio Torreón and later in the Escuela Juan Antonio de la Fuente, both in Saltillo. In 1908 he travelled to Mexico City and in 1913 obtained a law degree from the National Law School; in 1933 he was awarded a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in letters from the

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

(UNAM).

Career

He formed part of the Ateneo de la Juventud, a literary generation that also included

Rafael Cabrera Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ''R ...

, Jesus T. Acevedo,

Alfonso Cravioto Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

Antonio Caso Antonio Caso Andrade (December 19, 1883 – March 6, 1946) was a Mexican philosopher and rector of the former ''Universidad Nacional de México'', nowadays known as the National Autonomous University of Mexico from December 1921 to August ...

, Ricardo Gómez Robledo,

Enrique González Martínez Enrique González Martínez (April 13, 1871 in Guadalajara, Jalisco – February 19, 1952 in Mexico City) was a Mexican poet, diplomat, surgeon and obstetrician. His poetry is considered to be primarily Modernist in nature, with elements of Fre ...

Pedro Henríquez Ureña Pedro Henríquez Ureña (June 29, 1884 – May 11, 1946) was a Dominican essayist, philosopher, humanist, philologist and literary critic. Biography Early works Pedro Henríquez Ureña was born in Santo Domingo, the third of four siblings. He ...

Salvador Novo Salvador Novo López (30 July 1904 – 13 January 1974) was a Mexican writer, poet, playwright, translator, television presenter, entrepreneur, and the official chronicler of Mexico City. As a noted intellectual, he influenced popular percept ...

Alfonso Reyes Alfonso Reyes Ochoa (17 May 1889 in Monterrey, Nuevo León – 27 December 1959 in Mexico City) was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times and has been acclaimed as one of th ...

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

José Vasconcelos José Vasconcelos Calderón (28 February 1882 – 30 June 1959), called the "cultural " of the Mexican Revolution, was an important Mexican writer, philosopher, and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities ...

, and Luis G. Urbina. He engaged from 1914-22 in voluminous correspondence with Alfonso Reyes, who during that time was residing in Europe. From 1916-23 he co-edited with

Agustín Loera Agustín is a Spanish given name and sometimes a surname. It is related to Augustín. People with the name include: Given name * Agustín (footballer), Spanish footballer * Agustín Calleri (born 1976), Argentine tennis player * Agustín Cá ...

the editorial Cultura. He was founder and director of the SEP's Departamento de Bibliotecas (Department of Libraries) and served as its literary classics editor. In 1921 he founded, along with

Xavier Guerrero Xavier Guerrero (December 3, 1896 San Pedro de las Colonias, Coahuila – June 29, 1974 Mexico City) was one of the pioneers of the Mexican muralism movement in the early 20th century. He was introduced to painting through working with his father ...

José Clemente Orozco José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Sique ...

, and

Vicente Lombardo Toledano Vicente Lombardo Toledano (July 16, 1894 – November 16, 1968) was one of the foremost Mexican labor leaders of the 20th century, called "the dean of Mexican Marxism ndthe best-known link between Mexico and the international world of Mar ...

, the

syndicalist Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of pr ...

Grupo Solidario del Movimiento Obrero. He taught literature for nearly half a century at several institutions, including the

National Preparatory School The Escuela Nacional Preparatoria ( en, National Preparatory High School) (ENP), the oldest senior High School system in Mexico, belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), opened its doors on February 1, 1868. It was founde ...

, the UNAM, and for various summers at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, holding from 1953 onward the title of UNAM

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Professor. He undertook poetic and

pedagogical Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and Developmental psychology, psychological development of le ...

ambassadorships to countries like

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and the United States, while a trip to Europe in 1952 inspired some of his writing. In 2001

CONACULTA The Secretariat of Culture ( es, Secretaría de Cultura), formerly known as the National Council for Culture and Arts ( es, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes or CONACULTA), is a Mexican government agency in charge of the nation's museums ...

and the Coahuilan Institute of Culture (Icocult) established the Premio Nacional de Cuento Joven Julio Torri, a prize for young writers that honors Julio Torri.

Family

His nephew, Julio Torri Cervi, (1932–2003) was a famous

eccentric Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-center, in geometry * Eccentricity (graph theory) of a v ...

who lived for a time in

Tulancingo Tulancingo (officially Tulancingo de Bravo; Otomi language, Otomi: Ngu̱hmu) is the second-largest city in the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo. It is located in the southeastern part of the state and also forms ...

Literary oeuvre

Torri's oeuvre was distinctly influenced by his readings of

Charles Lamb Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his ''Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book ''Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–18 ...

Marcel Schwob Mayer André Marcel Schwob, known as Marcel Schwob (23 August 1867 – 26 February 1905), was a French symbolist writer best known for his short stories and his literary influence on authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alfonso Reyes, Roberto Bol ...

Jules Renard Pierre-Jules Renard (; 22 February 1864 – 22 May 1910) was a French author and member of the Académie Goncourt, most famous for the works '' Poil de carotte'' (Carrot Top, 1894) and ''Les Histoires Naturelles'' (Nature Stories, 1896). Among ...

Jules Laforgue Jules Laforgue (; 16 August 1860 – 20 August 1887) was a Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbo ...

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...

, and above all

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. He produced notable essays on

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize i ...

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous E ...

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...

José Juan Tablada José Juan de Aguilar Acuña Tablada (April 3, 1871 – August 2, 1945) was a Mexican poet, art critic and, for a brief period, diplomat. A pioneer of oriental studies, and champion of Mexican art, he spent a good portion of his life living abro ...

, Reyes, and Luis Gonzaga Urbina. He was a translator of works by

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...

and

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

. As an author his preferred forms were the essay (which put on display his impressive learning and culture) and the short story. He is credited with being one of the earliest practitioners of

prose poetry Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...

and writers of ''estampas'' ( literary sketches) in Mexico; he is also noted for his mastery of the epigraph. He was a fastidious writer who endlessly polished and refined his words, clarity and purity were the hallmarks of his style. His most important works are ''Ensayos y Poemas'' (Essays and Poems) (1917), ''De fusilamientos'' (On Executions usillations (1940), ''Tres libros'' (Three Books) (1964), ''Diálogo de los libros'' (

Dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

of the Books) (1980,

posthumous Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication – material published after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1987 * ...

Published works

(list not comprehensive) *''Ensayos y poemas'' (1917) *''Ensayos y fantasias'' (1918) *Romances viejos (1918) *''Las noches florentinas'' (Heinrich Heine; Julio Torri ranslator *''De fusilamientos'' (1940) *''Discurso sobre las pasiones del amor'' (Blaise Pascal; Julio Torri ranslator *''Sentencias y lugares comunes'' (1945) *''La literaura española'' (1952) *''La Revista moderna de Mexico; discurso de ingreso en la Academia Mexicana de la Lengua, correspondiente de la Española'' (1954) *''Tres libros: Ensayos y poemas, De fusilamientos, Prosas dispersas'' (1964) *''Diálogo de los libros'' (edited by Serge I. Zaïtzeff) (1980) *''El ladrón de ataúdes'' (edition Serge Zaïtzeff) (1987) *''Epistolarios'' (edition Serge Zaïtzeff) (1995)

Notes

Bibliography

*(English) Cortés, Eladio, Dictionary of Mexican Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992. *(Spanish) Alboukrek, Arrón, Diccionario de Escritores Hispanoamericanos, Mexico: Ediciones Larousse, 1991. *(Spanish) Ocampo de Gómez, Aurora Maura, Diccionario de escritores mexicanos, siglo XX : desde las generaciones del Ateneo y novelistas de la Revolución hasta nuestros días. Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, Centro de Estudios Literarios, 1992.

External links

*(English
Dictionary of Mexican Literature: Julio Torri
*(Spanish

*(Spanish
Julio Torri: entre la brevedad y la ironía
*(Spanish
Premio Nacional de Cuento Joven Julio Torri Programa Cultural Tierra Adentro
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torri, Julio Members of the Mexican Academy of Language Mexican essayists Male essayists Mexican male poets Mexican male short story writers Mexican short story writers Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico People from Saltillo Translators from French Translators from German 1970 deaths 1889 births Writers from Coahuila 20th-century Mexican poets 20th-century translators 20th-century short story writers 20th-century essayists 20th-century Mexican male writers